Untitled Sermon

What It Means to Be Truly Phenomenal

Phenomenal: very remarkable; extraordinary

Being phenomenal woman isn’t about appearance or the number of designer originals you possess. It’s not about level of education you have or the car you drive.

It’s about being a woman who lives a life that is driven by purpose and ignited by passion…you can’t have true purpose separate from God.

Without God, your self-defined purpose is skewed…off focus and your passion is misdirected.

Example: Driving down the street, lose focus and forget where you are and where you’re going. God is your personal Global Positioning System. When you get off track, He’ll reposition you.

Daniel chs. 1-6, give insight to what it means to live on purpose, through the lives of 4 young men.

4 boys snatched away from everything they knew and loved. Loved ones gone (dead or in slavery). Surrounded by torment and grief.

Daniel - Belteshazzar

Hananiah - Shadrach

Mishael - Meshach

Azariah - Abednego

These boys were:

1. Isolated. Family and friends taken away from them (murdered or in slavery).

2. Their names were changed. Their names had a Godly meaning. It identified their faith and what they believed.

Loved ones gone (dead or in slavery). Surrounded by torment and grief.

3. Change their diet. Attempted to distract them with lavish and exotic meals. Things happen when you get good food.

4. Forced to serve their afflicter…the one who caused them and their family pain and distress

It was their God given purpose that gave them the ability to stand in the midst of hardship. It was purpose that cause Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to say in Daniel 3:16

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.

17 “1If it be so, our aGod whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; 2and bHe will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

18 “aBut even if He does not, blet it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

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2 Or then

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New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), .