“Sell Out!” V2

General Intro (Ministry Slide not Title slide)

Hey guys, as you can tell I am definitely not Robbie. He is not able to be here tonight and so he asked me to open up God’s word with you tonight. Some of you guys might recognize me from summer camp last year but in case you don’t know me, my name is Richard and I am one of the new pastoral residents here at the church. I am very grateful to Robbie for allowing me to give this message to you guys tonight, in his place.

Without wasting anymore time, isn’t our world crazy? I mean seriously. I’d assume at least most of you have heard about or seen the opening ceremony of the olympics that was now over a month ago, in which they mocked the last super. Well did you also know that 2 biologically male boxers that won gold in women’s boxing? Those are just two very recent events, that are just 2 of many different things that have been happening in this world that we live in.

The truth is this world is going crazy, and it is only going to get worse. Right now all around us, especially in this digital age that we are in, the world and culture is trying to get us to sell our selves out for the things that they believe and are pushing. We can’t even watch the olympics without a blatant attempt at pushing their ideals in our faces. But it isn’t just on tv that we face this, it is everywhere. On social media people are always trying to get you to buy something to that will make you happier, schools are pushing beliefs down our throats through the curriculum they teach, and the list goes on and on and on.

Now, I don’t know what is going on inside of all of your lives at the moment but please try and relate this next example to a situation that you either are facing right now or have in the past. Let’s say you are going through something very mentally hard, whether that be a breakup, a family death, stress at school or work, debates and arguments among friends or family, and anything else of the like. In this situation where do you turn to? Did you or do you run to a vice? Did you run to escape from reality by scrolling on Tik Tok or Instagram for hours on end? Did you play video games from dusk till dawn? Did you turn to sexual immorality through porn or something else? Did you turn into a people pleaser for your own validation?

The world is and will always try to tempt us to go to the things of its world vs the things of God when we face trials and hardships. That is why it is so important to be sold out for God and His kingdom rather than the things of this world and what it promises.

So thats the title of this message, SELL OUT!, because that is what we need to do. We are going to be looking at a piece of scripture, Daniel 3 verses 15 to 25 and we are going to see what we need to do in order to know if we are sold out for God and if not teach us how to get there.

Sell Out

Intro to Daniel

While you guys flip in your Bibles to Daniel, which is about 2/3 the way through your Bible, I will give you guys a little overview of the book itself and a little background on the events that led to where we pick up the story here in chapter 3.

The book of Daniel is one the major prophet books on the Bible. The book was written by Daniel and is dated to be around 600 years before Christ. The backdrop of this book is right on the coattails of the fall of the kingdom of Judah. King Nebuchadnezzar and his forces over through the Kingdom, killing the King Jehoiakim and then laying seige to Jerusalem.

While this book is considered one of the major prophets not all of it is prophetic in nature. The first half of the book is full of stories with some prophecy while the last half of the book is full of Apocalyptic Prophesy.

Intro to where we are

The text that we are in, is one of those stories in the first half. In our passage we see a trial of 3 young men names, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. We first meet these three in chapter one of this book as they, along with Daniel, the author, are chosen to be taken from Jerusalem to the King’s palace where they would be raised as if they were Chaldeans. In chapter 2 along with other things we learn that Nebuchadnezzar had a prophetic dream and it was Daniel who by way of God, could interpret it for him. This led to the king claiming that it was a “Great God” that made the meaning of the dream known, this will tie in a bit later.

Now that we better understand where we are and what we are reading lets read through the text and break it down as we go, starting in verse 15 it reads,

Daniel 3:15 ESV

15 Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”

Stop right there. Ok what’s going on?! There’s an orchestra and this king wants these men to bow down when the music starts like backwards musical chairs, huh?! Well we see that this king is making these men have to bow down to an idol that he has, and in doing so these men would be bowing down to the king as well. Just before this the king was having all the people in the palace do this at the same time, but someone told the king that these 3 were not bowing down like everyone else. Already we see something that we need to do in order to be sold out or to know if we are sold out for God and that is we must reflect

WE MUST:

Reflect [V15]

We can see this from this single verse. First we see a choice that has to be made in the minds of the 3 young men. They have to chose between their faith and what is being pushed in front of them. That sounds a lot like today’s world doesn’t it? The second thing we see is the King mocking Yahweh, mocking God, and exulting himself. He is thinking he has far more power than he really does. So this brings up two questions that we must ask ourselves and reflect on to see where we are at.

- Do I turn to the idols and ideals of this world?

The first is, do I turn to the idols and ideals of this world? Those vices I talked about at the beginning of this message, is that what you turn to? When things get tough do you isolate yourself from all things Christianity and find comfort in the things of this world? Do you allow yourself to be swayed by the things this world, or the things that your so called friends, want you to believe? If your practice to help feel better in times of pain, suffering or trial, results in glorifying sin in any manner, than you are not fully sold out for God.

- Do I exult myself too highly?

The next question to ask is do we exult ourselves too highly? At the end of this verse that is exactly what the king is doing when he says, And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands? In the last chapter he just praised God saying he was a great God, but right here his actions do not back up those words. Do we do that too? Do we say one week that we are on fire for the Lord when the next we are pulling away from all things spiritual because something bad happened that week? Are we too full of pride to think that we can be hypocrites and mess up. When we think to highly of ourselves, we shut down to help from our brothers and sisters in Christ. No longer do we listen to what they have to say but we take it as they are just trying to attack us because they are jealous of us. This is a terrible mindset to have, so we much check ourselves and make sure we aren’t exulting ourselves.

Respond Correctly [V16]

The text shows us a great example of what we should do and something that will help us know if we are fully SOLD OUT. We must RESPOND CORRECTLY. Now what do I mean by that exactly? Look at verse 16 with me.

Daniel 3:16 (ESV)

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

Lets stop right there real quick. What did they do here that we can learn from? They picked their battles, so we must PICK OUR BATTLES.

- Pick your battles

The reality is if we let ourselves, we could argue all day long with almost everybody out there in the world today. Everyone has an opinion and most of them out there are not Biblical. That’s just how it is unfortunately. Because of that we must pick our battles wisely. Paul writes this to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 15 and 16,

2 Timothy 2:15–16 ESV

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,

This verse shows us just what it means to pick our battles and to do so wisely. Never diminish the Truth and never be ashamed of it. But at the same time, if discussions arise that lead to no where, or even lead to sin in the form of anger or the like, realize that you don’t need to die on that hill. This is especially so when dealing with people living in extreme rebellion to God and his commands, whether that be a prodigal or an unbeliever. As Romans 1:32 says, “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” Sometimes people are just looking for a fight and won’t give up until they get you to affirm what they believe. If we must never be ashamed of the Gospel or the truth of Scripture then we can’t wander from our convictions. With that being true, if a discussion that is being had or may be had in the future will end up in a stale mate or possible sin, avoid it for a time. All it will do is grow anger in both of the parties hearts. Also realize that there is only so much time that we have here on Earth, sometimes we just need to move onto the next battle to better leverage our time for the Gospel, just as Jesus told his followers in Matthew 10:14

Matthew 10:14 ESV

And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.

So just as Jesus’ disciples did, we need to pick our battles.

Let’s keep going in the text, look at verse 17 and 18 with me

Daniel 3:17–18 ESV

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. 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.”

The men do 2 more things here that is what allowed them to respond rightly. The second way they responded correctly was by understanding and acknowledging God’s power.

- Understand & Acknowledge God’s power [V17]

You can see them do it in verse 17. They flat out say it. They know that God can save them. He has the power and the authority to do so. If it is Gods will to rescue them, than nothing will stop God from doing so. This then leads to the next way they responded rightly; they humbled themselves under the will of God.

- Humble yourself under the will of God [V18]

As we can see in verse 18, it starts with the word “but”. They know that God CAN save them from their impending punishment, but they also know that God doesn’t HAVE TO. God has plans that He only knows. His ways are so beyond ours. The 3 men here realized that and had faith through that reality. Just because we are Christians does not mean that God will always rescue us out of our trials. Look at Job for instance. This is from Job 13:15

Job 13:15 (ESV)

Though he slay me, I will hope in him;

That is one of the most famous verses from all of the book of Job, and it is the same sentiment that the men share here. They know that God will do what He has planned, and that even if it means they perish they will stay faithful. That is what I mean when I say we all need to humble ourselves under the will of God. We must cultivate a faith and understanding of God that allows us to submit to His will, even in the most dire of situations.

Just as I’ve been saying all message and you know, the world will try to tear us away from our convictions and our faith in God every chance it gets. But we must remember who God is and what he promises us. Lets take a look at 19 to 25 now,

Daniel 3:19–25 ESV

Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated. And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Because the king’s order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace. 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.” 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.”

In those few verses we see so much. First, we see Nebuchadnezzer get enraged when they don’t fall down and worship him or his idols, so he heats us the furnace as hot as it will go, that is really what “seven times hotter” means. Not only that we see that he is still relying on his own perceived strength. Look at verses 20 and 21. He doesn’t ask just anybody to bind up the 3 men, no he picks the mighty men, he pull out the big guns. He believes that his strongest is no match, for anyone else, he wants nothing stopping this execution. He even binds the men in their clothes so they would catch fire all the more when on the bodies of the men, making the experience all the more excruciating for them.

Now what happens next should be our favorite part. The mighty men get burned up and the 3 men fall into the furnace. Not that part, hopefully your don’t like that part too much. But it should be the fact that they don’t burn up and die. They are saved and met in the fire by a fourth person. This fourth person is believed to be what is called a theophany or more specifically a Christophany. That means that the fourth man in the fire was a pre-incarnate manifestation of Christ.

It was God himself who both rescued the men from the fire and was in the fire with them. He was right there in the midst of their trouble, just as He still is for us. Psalm 23 is a great place in scripture to see just that.

Here’ verse 4,

Psalm 23:4 ESV

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

So when the world comes with all of it’s might to try and tear us away we must make sure that we READY OURSELVES.

Ready Ourselves [V19-25]

This happens in two different but very similar ways. The first is that we must

- Commit to personal discipleship

Do you wish to have a faith like that, one that stands in the face of death and holds strong? Are you ready to do whatever it takes to cultivate a faith like that of these men? We all need to. This can look like so many things, but I’ll offer a few. Saturate yourself with the Word of God. When temptation and the lies of this world come our way we need the Word of God stored up in our heart so we can fight it, with the truth. Jesus did this very thing in Matthew 4:4. Just as when the devil tempted him, we must also utilize the Word of God as our defense against temptation,

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12. But how can we use scripture to fight off temptation when we do not have it stored up in our heart? We are doing ourselves a major dis-service when we do not do so. We need to become Psalm 1, men and women. Those that

Psalm 1:2 (ESV)

[makes their] delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law [they] meditate day and night.

Spend time in your Bible, if you aren’t routinely in your Bible right now, start a plan, there is many on our website, or even try one off of the Bible app, just read your Bible. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy. For instance, if you read 3 to 4 chapters a day, or around 15 minutes a day, you will read through the whole Bible in under a year. While you are going through the Bible, practice memorization, this is how you will practically store up the Word so you can use it when temptation or trials arise.

Tied into both of those is also a discipline that I think a lot of us neglect, or treat with too little significance, PRAYER. It is a such a vital discipline in a Christians life. A quote that I love is from R. Kent Hughes in the disciples of a Godly man, it reads,

“The more we expose our lives to the white hot sun of his righteous life [that being Jesus], the more his image will be burned into our character.”

Time in prayer is how we directly communicate and interact with the God of the universe. We as Christians have the ability to speak to God.

I don’t think we realize how awesome of a statement that is. We can speak to the one true and living God. No one else apart from those who have been adopted into his family can do that. Jesus’ disciples even asked Jesus how to pray, not how to teach or how to live, but how to pray. So we need to treat the ability to pray like the treasure that it is.

Some may be thinking, well Richard, “I don’t know how to pray”. And I will offer this. First, you need to believe in the first place. [GOSPEL PRES.] If you want to be able to communicate with the God of the universe, be like him, and be redeemed from your sins, then you must by grace, through faith, accept Jesus as your Lord and savior. It is through him that we can communicate to God the Father. Second, if we want to learn how to pray, then we must just pray.

Wow. I know that point was something special. But it is the truth. If you want to learn how to pray then do so. Not only that but pray for God to teach you how to pray. A paraphrased quote from Paul Washer goes like this, “Pray until you can pray, then pray until you can’t no more”. The more you pray the better you will be at it. The more you will understand how to talk to God. You don’t need to have a perfect prayer ready to talk to God, bring what you have, as that is what he calls us to bring.

Another way to learn how to pray is to be around others who pray, thus we also need to COMMIT OURSELVES TO COMMUNAL DISCIPLESHIP

- COMMIT OURSELVES TO COMMUNAL DISCIPLESHIP

We need each other. We need mentors, we need friends, we need family, we need counselors, we need people, plain and simple. We can learn from others and rely on them when we need it. It is truly such a joy to walk alongside other brothers and sisters in Christ when they are hurting or celebrating. Through both we get to point them back to Jesus. So, if you haven’t already, put yourself out there. Create a bible study with your friends. Dive deep in small group. And when you do commit yourself to communal discipleship, you will see that your faith will grow and you will be more and more ready to face whatever this crazy world will throw at you.

Let’s go to God in prayer and ask Him to help us apply these things to our lives.