Fiery Furnace

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Hermeneutics

Help learn how to read Bible the right way
I don’t want to mock you or make fun of you, because no one has taught you better. 
And nothing has changed my life more than reading my Bible consistently 
Pitfalls- Open to random page, immediately apply to your life, not get anything out of it, only read NT, reading like a textbook and hyper-analyzing everything
Understand the Bible was not written to you, but in God’s sovereignty, He knew we would be reading it
The Bible is 66 books, has different authors, written to different people, for different purposes, in different years, and different languages
Daniel takes place over 500 years before Jesus.
They were taken into exile by the nation of Babylon.
They were trying to indoctrinate them into the culture of Babylon
Read verse by verse and teach how to read Bible the right way. Read on your own God will grow you tremendously
1st tip- cannot just apply to your life. You have to pull out the overarching principles and then can apply those principles.
Before summarize the first 2 chapters
occurred 600 years before Jesus
Daniel wrote it
Jerusalem was in ruins. Israel had been taken into captivity by a massive nation Babylon- King Nebuchadnezzar
Daniel and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, went through a process of indoctrination and inculturation. Basically forced to become Babylonians for 3 years. ASU
Despite the efforts of Babylon, they kept their integrity and remained faithful to the Lord
King found them 10 times more capable then any other government officials
The king had a dream and no one could interpret it. King is intense- if you don’t tell me what this means, I will tear you limb from limb. Called for all the wise men to be executed but Daniel stepped up and told him what the dream was and what it meant
Daniel was placed in a high position to rule over much of the kingdom and he promoted his 3 friends to be high level government officials
Chapter 3 zooms in on a specific story about Daniels 3 friends and Daniel is not in this story

Verse by verse

King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet tall and nine feet wide (60x6 cubits) and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 2 Then he sent messages to the high officers, officials, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the provincial officials to come to the dedication of the statue he had set up. 3 So all these officials came and stood before the statue King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Explain

4 Then a herald shouted out, “People of all races and nations and languages, listen to the king’s command! 5 When you

Principle #1- People will worship other gods and try to force others to as well.
We were made to worship.
Even the atheist, rather than worshipping God, he worships himself and intellect
It is not a matter of are you worshipping or not, it is a matter of what are you worshipping.
Everyone worships something.
That is wrong because...
Principle #2- worship should be for God alone: 1 Chronicles 15:16 “David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy.”
He is stealing worship that belongs to God. That is a scary place to be in. God does not take to this lightly
Question- Would you bow down to ignore the punishment? Do you love God so much so that you are willing to die for your faith rather than reject Him? If someone put a gun to your head would you deny Jesus?
Is there anything you wouldn’t give up if God asked?
Told you to be single for the rest of your life?
Told you to sell everything? - Told you to move?
If there is something you would not give up for God, that means it is above God which makes it an idol in your life and you need to repent of that and give it to God

8 But some of the

Principle #3- Civil disobedience:
Romans 13:1 “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”
There are times when you are given a choice to obey the government but that means disobeying God. If that is the case you have to obey God
This is rare. You speeding on the way hear is not what I am talking about. During covid, California and Washington banned singing in gatherings. God tells us to worship Him with praise through singing. To obey the government is to disobey God. A lot of churches said no God has told us to do this and we are going to.

13 Then

Bro messed up. A little foreshadowing. A chance God may not have saved them, but when he said that, game over.
Principle #4- Fear of the Lord. Do not put the Lord your God to the test
Proverbs says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. You cannot truly have wisdom without God
Fear of the Lord is not talked about much.
Difference between believers and non-believers (Hebrews fearful thing)
There are healthy fears. Having fear can save you from harm. Good parents, scared to do bad on a test and let them down. That fear drives you to do better out of love and honor for your parents
For me as I am teaching, fear of the Lord looks like me doing my best to properly represent God to you. I have the task of giving you a good or bad view of God, and I am scared to get it wrong.
Some of you didn’t know you’re supposed to forgot. Some of you only have a fluffy, plush only love version of God. God has wrath too, and God has judgment because he is just.
We have to have fear of the Lord

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar,

Principle #5- God defends the defenseless
I love this about God. People may have slandered your name, lied about you, taken advantage of you, stolen, or gossiped about you. If you are not in the wrong, God will defend your reputation. If someone criticizes you for being a Christian, you do not need to defend yourself. Logan Paul and George Janko
Principle #6- My God is able- Do you actually believe that? God is all powerful, He is able to do anything. No situation you are in is too big for Him
Principle #7- My God will- That is faith. Expectancy goes a long way. Prayer moves the hand of God. We cannot force God to do anything, but through asking and being expectant, He can accept our requests if he wants.
Principle #8- Even if God does not deliver from difficulty, God’s children still need to worship Him
Misconceptions of Faith-
Believing harder (manifestation)- Faith is placed in the character and person of God. My God can and will save us. Isaac saved. Gen 22- God will provide a sheep. Yahweh Jireh. I like to think they were thinking about this story as this. Our faith isn’t blind. God reveals himself to us through the Bible, and so we can have faith that He will be true to His character. and God provides
Faith is a feeling- faith is trusting in God despite your feelings. It is easy when at a spiritual high, but the real test is when you are at a spiritual low
Faith is being true to yourself- wrong, faith is being obedient to God even if you do not want to. It is crucifying your flesh to serve the Lord even if you do not understand, but it is placing faith in his character as a Father.
Faith is a gift from God. God saves you and gives you faith and sustains your faith. You cannot believer harder and muster up faith, you have to ask for more.
Faith says- My God can, My God will, but even if he doesn’t, I still won’t bow to the enemy
Underline that, highlight that, memorize that, live that
Some of you are going through some crap rn. I want you to live that
My God can, My God will, but even if he doesn’t, I still won’t bow to the enemy
So good, keep going

The Blazing Furnace

19 Nebuchadnezzar was

Principle #9- the strength of man can never compare to God
Nebuchadnezzar heated it 7 times, tied them up, and had the strongest men. He used all his strength to make sure they were killed
If you try to fight God, you will never win- Planned Parenthood founder died and defunded recently. Everything she built, just gone.
How often do we try to force something to happen without God? Can I be really honest- Some of you have forced yourself into a dating relationship even though you know God is not in it. Wisdom that will sting- What is the purpose of dating? Are you ready to get married soon? If not, then you are not ready to date.
What if instead of trying to force our will, we waited on God’s will?
Every time i have forced something it did not go well, but every time i wait God provides and it is so much better
Principle #10- God puts us through the fire, doesn’t deliver us around it
Some of you think Jesus will make your life easier. Never promises that. He actually only promises that you will have more suffering. In this world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. If you are in Christ he can help you go through the fire. God did not deliver Jesus from the cross. He had to endure. When we endure, God is purifying and refining us.
Blacksmith with silver. Heat it up and impurities rise to the top and scrapes them off. Same with God
And then they died and were consumed by the fire.
My story before getting married-
Bought a house a month and half before getting married. Fixer upper and had a lot to get done and never done it before so stress
Broken window- requested insurance and cancelled me so i had to pay out of pocket
Started a new job at church launching a new ministry so spiritually drained
Guy doing work kept getting sick and random things, so deadline kept getting pushed back
1 week prior and still got a lot to do with house on top of wedding last minute
Phone stopped working- no texts or safari or phone calls
Closed my bank account. Had to make first mortgage payment and still had wedding stuff
Lord told me he wouldn’t deliver me from it, but he would shoulder the burden with me to build my capacity
Wedding great, honeymoon great. Figured out bank and phone and all the things
Got back car broke down
beetle infestation
pool cleaner stopped working so dirty pool- more money
dishwasher shocked Brisee electrical issues
Brisee got salmonella and had to go to the ER- more money
Everything worked out, the Lord provided.
I learned He provides a little at a time so we continue having faith. If He gave us everything we need immediately and told us everything that would happen, we would not need faith.
All that to say, God puts us through the fire for refining, rather than delivering us from it

24 But suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisers,

The story continues and they are consumed by the fire and die for their faith
Principle #11- God comes down to save.
Most scholars agree that it was actually Jesus
Same word for God walking around in the garden.
Whether it was Jesus or not, God either came down or sent someone to deliver.
God coming down to serve His people is unheard of. gods were to be served by people, gods weren’t supposed to serve the people.
That is the story of the Bible- Romans says that we are dead in our sin and the wages of sin is death.
So since we are sinners, we are separated from relationship with God. We were actually His enemies.
We could not do anything to work our way up to God, so God came down to us as the 2nd member of the Trinity, Jesus Christ
He did not only come down, but he lived a perfect life and then was crucified taking our place for the punishment that we deserve
And all we have to do is repent of our sins and put our faith in Jesus
This is the story of our God, He comes down to save us. Idk about y’all, but i am in constant need of saving so I am thankful that God comes down to save us amen
COMMUNION NOW. then continue sermon

26 Then

Can you imagine this?

28 Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “

Principle #13- God requires complete and total devotion
Jesus said that if you are lukewarm he will spit you out of His mouth
Speak to some of the things YAs engage in.
You don’t get to go party on the weekdays and come to church on the weekend.
You do not get to have sex before marriage and get God’s blessing in your marriage.
You don’t get to take advantage of people and expect God to help.
You don’t get to do whatever you want and just come to church sometimes
Here’s what being a Christian looks like- you sin, you repent. True repentance means you don’t keep going back to that sin.
King Nebuchadnezzar later in the story. I encourage you to read it later. Daniel 4:31- He looks at the kingdom and says, “Look at this great city of Babylon! By my own mighty power, I have built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majestic splendor. While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you,” ate grass for 7 years.
Principle #14- Living life in obedience to God is the best way to live.
We do not obey God to get something in return, we do it because it is right.
When we do what is right, God is in a position to bless us like Shad, Me, Abed. God is a Father, He can only bless us when we are in His will. There is no bad for the life of the Christian. You go through suffering, God uses it for good. You sin, repent and God can use it to help others. You die, you are with God forever. Having that eternal perspective will help you attack difficulties and welcome suffering.
We are responsible for obedience, God is responsible for the outcome
You each have sin in your life that you are not wanting to give up to God. Or maybe you want to but do not know how to. He already died for it, not give it to him and put it to death
RESPOND IN WORSHIP AND PRAYER. I WANT EVERYONE TO BE PRAYED FOR BEFORE THEY LEAVE
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