Boldness in Faith in an Unkown World

The world today

Today as a country we are faced with so many things going on, so many things that we question as a person. So many things that we allow to guide our hearts.

So many things that the world tells us we are to believe.

It doesn’t matter what the topic is, we are scared, we are filled with fear.

How do I respond when I’m asked about abortion, how do I respond to the current situation with race, how do I respond to gender other than Male and Female, should I smoke marajuana? Should I go out and party.

What do I do if someone asks me what I think about this?

I don’t want people to dislike me.

I don’t want to offend someone.

What if I make them feel bad?

These questions that we are confronted with on an almost daily basis.

It is these simple questions that we see in todays world that can become so troubling to us, they can be come weights or anchors on our hearts.

The simple questions,

what do I believe or what should I believe?

How do I respond?

What do I say?

Many times we get lost our emotions run wild, if we aren’t careful we soon become a slave to that fear to the weight of the questions.

We can let our desire to get along control our response.

Today I want us to look at an account in the Bible that parallels much of what we are seeing today. Lets look in the book of Daniel

We are going to start with some background-

the events took place in the 6th century BC.

The book of Daniel was actually written in 2 different languages 1:1-2:4 and 8:1-12:13 are written in Hebrew, 2:25-7:28 are written in Aramaic. It is important to know this because aramaic was the common language of the period for that reason, and these parts applied to everyone. The portions that were written in Hebrew were written specifically for the Jewish people of he time.

I want to set the stage for what we are about to take a deep dive in to

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had invaded Jerusalem and had over thrown

King Jehoiakim who had been in power for 3 years. It is important to know that the 2 kings did not worship the same god.

2. We see in Daniel 1:3-7

3 The king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the Israelites from the royal family and from the nobility—4 young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the Chaldean language and literature. 5 The king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank. They were to be trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to attend the king.,j 6 Among them, from the Judahites, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 7 The chief eunuch gave them names; he gave the name Belteshazzar to Daniel, Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishael, and Abednego to Azariah.

They wanted to indoctrinate the young people , he chose the ones who were intelligent, he chose those of stature because when you can get them to become dependent on you for their well being, food and shelter yo wear them down, most of the time they can be brought to worship what is perceived to provide for them.

Daniel did not want to eat the King’s food or drink his wine, he did not want to make himself dirty with these things. Daniel made a deal with one of the guards to only give him and his 3 companions water and vegetables for 10 days, after that the 4 looked healthier and stronger than any of the others, so the guard continued to give them vegetables and water.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

17 God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king consulted them about, he found them ten times,t better than all the magicians and mediums in his entire kingdom. 21 Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

So why is this important? Lets imagine this, young people from a conquered group are advising the king on the matters that were important to the kingdom rather than the advice come from his own people.

king Nebuchadnezzer had been having bad dreams so he called the priests and magicians from within his kingdom and asked them to interpret the dreams. The king wanted them to interpret the dreams for him, but he was not going to share the dreams with them, they had to know. They were not able to tell what the dreams were, because of this the king was angry and he called for all of the wise men of Babylon to be executed. When Daniel heard this he asked the king to give him some time and he would interpret the dream. Daniel went to the house of his friends and told them what was up, the dream was revealed to Daniel in the night through a vision.. Daniel praised God and went to God in prayer and asked what the dream meant.

Daniel revealed to the King that his kingdom will be detstroyed in the future. After the dreams meaning was shared the nebuchdnezzer fell face down and worshipped Daniel, he told Daniel, your God is indeed God of God’s lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries.

He gave Daniel many gifts and made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and governor of all the wise men,

At Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to manage the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king’s court.

No we we get to a part of the book of Daniel that most of us have heard or read through on many occasions..

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue, ninety feet high and nine feet wide.

The king called for all of the governors and leaders of the provinces to come to the dedication of he statue that he had built.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

4 A herald loudly proclaimed, “People of every nation and language, you are commanded: 5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music, you are to fall facedown and worship the gold statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 But whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire

Some of the Chaldeans went forward and told king nebudchanezzer They went to the king and said, hey you said that when we heard the music you need fall down and worship, or you will be put in the furnace. The three Jews,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

are not dropping and worshipping as you instructed.

The king was furious, he had them brought before him.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you don’t serve my gods or worship the gold statue I have set up? 15 Now if you’re ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music, fall down and worship the statue I made. But if you don’t worship it, you will immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire—and who is the god who can rescue you from my power?”

they responded to the king- we don’t need to answer you-

Could you be that bold in that situation, I hope that you can

We have to be in our knowledge that God is with us always

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

17 If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. 18 But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”

19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times more than was customary, 20 and he commanded some of the best soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. 21 So these men, in their trousers, robes, head coverings, and other clothes, were tied up and thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. 22 Since the king’s command was so urgent,k and the furnace extremely hot, the raging flames killed those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire.

all of a sudden the king jumps up and is didn’t we throw three men, bound into the fire?

We have to be in our knowledge that God is with us always

Yes of we did your majesty-

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

25 He exclaimed, “Look! I see four men, not tied, walking around in the fire unharmed; and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.

The king then proceeded to go to the furnace and he called them out

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God—come out!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire. 27 When the satraps, prefects, governors, and the king’s advisers gathered around, they saw that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men: not a hair of their heads was singed, their robes were unaffected, and there was no smell of fire on them.

Lets imagine, a furnace 7 times hotter than normal, and they are unscathed, not a burn on them.lot blemished at all.

Why is this important to us where we are today?

We are confronted with situations where the world has told us that we will do x or y but not z,

We live in a day where so many of us have a weak faith, we fail to stand up.

Why because or faith is too weak?

Are we scared we might make someone mad? or that we might offend?

Guess what, when we have that trust that trust in the one who our hope is found there is nothing that he won’t see us through.

We have to be in faith

We see here that shadrach Meshach and abedendego, even if it meant they would suffer a horrible, painful death in a furnace, they refused to abandon God and worship an idol.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

Praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! He sent his angel,r and rescued his servants who trusted in him. They violated the king’s command and risked their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. 29

We see in that final passage a dedication, a selfless dedication to the love of our God.

This is important today and tomorrow, will you stand up in the face of danger, in the face of a worldly fear and trust in God? It can be tough, it is tough.

When we walk with the knowledge, the understanding, that we will never be able to bring the people of the world to a knowledge of christ by becoming like the world. When we are confronted with the furnaces that the world puts in front of us we can rest easy in what Paul wrote in 2 corinthians 4:16-18

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 4

16 Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. 18 So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

I encourage each of you this week as you run the race of life stand tall that our God is with us, that he may not spare us from the pain, but he will bring us through all that is in front of us. God may not put out the fires we experience but he will be there with us everytime we look to him.

The world wants us to conform to the idols that are around us, God wants us to walk with the knowledge that he is with us.

God wants us to trust that he is present through every trouble, every trial we face.

Are you ready to put aside the idols in your life, are you ready to trust what is good an true the word of God. If you have something, an idol that is in your life that you need God to take from you, pray with me right now, God, I give you my false God, the idols of my life,, Father you are the lord of my live, all that I need is in you. The journey may not always be easy, but with you there is nothing we can’t overcome, We wlcome you as the lord of our lives, we look to you as our rock, its in your sons precious name we pray- Amen