Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

How many of you like to swim?

Swimming is one of those things that it seems like you either love or you hate - you either enjoy being in the water or you’re deathly afraid of it.

Several years ago there was a dad who was in the process of teaching his young son how to swim and it was a battle to get him in the water in the first place.

He would try to get the boy to touch the water and then take the first step into the pool, but at this point the boy wouldn’t go any further.

Eventually the boy would get in the pool and splash around in the shallow side but he wouldn’t put his head underneath.

After a while, he would actually walk around with his dad in the shallow end of the pool, gripping his fingers deep into his dad’s hand.

What comes next?

Jumping into the pool!

The boy would stand on the edge with his dad waiting to catch him in the pool and after a few moments of contemplation, he’d run the other way to his mom!

This was scary stuff - and maybe you can relate as a kid.

The dad promised that he’d catch his son, and in time the son jumped off the ledge… Straight into the arms of his father.

What do you think the boy wanted to do after that?

He wanted to jump again, and again, and again!

The next day the dad was a little worried because he wasn’t in the pool.

Would the boy jump in on his own and get in trouble?

Would he be safe?

The boy nervously walked around the edge of the pool and didn’t dare touch the water… Why?

The son’s trust wasn’t in his own ability to handle the water - it was in his father’s promise that he would catch him.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we have a promise from our Father that He will catch us.

That He will be with us.

That He will save us!

Do you have your trust and faith placed in Him?

Even though we should trust in God’s promise, we are a nation of worriers and over half of Americans, including many churchgoers say that they worry about something each and every day.

That’s just the % of people who admitted to worrying… In reality, the number is likely much higher!

Consider some of the things that we worry about

What if I jump into the water and can’t swim?

What if my health report comes back negative?

What if my nightmare turns into my reality?

What if my parent passes away?

What if my child is sick?

What if I had done this differently?

We go through these situations every single day, friends!

What we have to ultimately ask, as we began looking at last week, is simply this: Is God enough?

Do we truly trust in His power and provision in our lives?

If I jump into the water, will God catch me?

If my health falls apart, is God enough?

If my job gets cut, is God enough?

If I don’t make the team, is God enough?

If my suffering continues, is God enough?

We know the “church answer” - yes - of course God is enough!

But in the heat of the moment, in the moment of decision, whenever we have to jump into the water, do we truly trust that God will provide?

The greatest promise in Scripture is not that God will take away our suffering, but that He promises to walk with us through every situation that comes our way - good and bad, He is with us!

Let’s continue studying about faith in Daniel 3 as we find yet another example of people trusting in God.

In Daniel 1 we saw that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah choose to worship God and stay faithful to His commands instead of bending the knee to Babylon.

This was a decision that was stressful as it put them in danger, but it was the right decision to make.

In Daniel 2 we read that Nebuchadnezzer has a dream that he wants to have answered and none of the Babylonian interpreters were able to tell him what his dream meant.

Daniel, though, we read was able to do this.

God not only helped Daniel know what the dream was, but God allows Daniel to interpret it accurately.

Babylon would prosper because God had raised them up for a time.

Nebuchadnezzer falls down and worships Daniel and his God and says this: Daniel 2:47

This is the in between story for us between the events of Daniel 1 and whenever the young boys were first brought to Babylon and the events we will examine today in Daniel 3. First, we see that these men trust in the Lord above all else, not in idols

Trust in God - Not Idols (1-7)

In this chapter, we see that these men have courage under fire as they live out Philippians 1:21 as Paul shares that to live is Christ and to die is gain!

We don’t hear from these 3 men again in Scripture and we don’t know how much times passes between Daniel 2 and Daniel 3. But we do see that when push comes to shove, these men will not bend the knee.

We read in the opening verse that Nebuchadnezzar built a statue some 90 feet tall - an obelisk as they were called in ancient days - and scholars are divided as to what the statue was of.

Some argue that the statue was an image of the king himself while others argue that it was a statue of the chief Babylonian god, Marduk.

Either way, this was an idol and it was massive!

The purpose of this statue was to provide something for the people of Babylon to worship and to grow the king’s pride.

The expectation is that the people of the country will hear music play and they will fall to their knees and worship the statue - they will worship a Babylonian god.

Do you see how this puts the Israelites in a difficult position?

They have been exalted to advise the King, they serve in his palace, yet they are now being forced to do something that goes against God’s commands.

They have a choice to make, and we have to ask ourselves the same question: Will we obey man or God? Have you ever been in a situation like this?

Maybe you were told that you had to do something wrong in order to keep your job or reputation among you friends.

What would you do?

It’s easy to give the church answer and say that you’d obey God, but in the moment what would you do?

Would you go with the flow and ask for repentance after the fact from God? Would you stand up for what is right in the first place?

It probably depends on the cost of obeying God, right?

If the cost for obeying God is that you miss out on a movie or you miss out on a party, that’s not that big of a deal… But what if the cost for following God and obeying Him is your life?

Is Jesus worth it, then?

Verse 6 shares with us that anyone who didn’t fall down and worship the statue would be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire… Nebuchadnezzer wasn’t bluffing either, the fire would have been nice and hot after the construction of this statue and he had already burned 2 men to death as we read from the prophet Jeremiah

The king was daring someone to oppose him so that he could assert his dominance and power.

This furnace wasn’t just your kitchen oven that heats cookies at 350 degrees for 10 minutes!

This was a furnace that could reach 1800 degrees Fahrenheit.

This was not a good way to go.

You’d expect everyone to fall in line, right?

No one would want to suffer this type of end.

Think of the ideas floating through their minds here:

Bend the knee and ask for forgiveness later

Come up with an excuse to not be in public when the music plays

Stand up and suffer the consequence

Many of us would be much more inclined to choose options 1 or 2, but these men choose not to worship the idol.

They choose option number 3. They determined, as we examined last week, that they would be in Babylon, but they would never be of Babylon.

They would work for Nebuchadnezzer, but they would never worship Nebuchadnezzer.

They would not bend the knee to an idol.

They would trust in God’s plan and obey His commands rather than going with the flow and taking the easy way out.

So, why is it so tempting for us to bend the knee?

Sure, we’re probably not going to fall to our knees and worship a 90 foot statue, unless you’re in Washington DC and come across the Washington Monument!

That’s probably not going to happen… But what are some idols that we are tempted to fall down to and worship?

We all worship something.

We either worship the Creator of all things or we worship something that He created.

Consider what idols you are being tempted to trust in.

The idol of technology?

Americans spend over 7 hours each day on various screens.

The idol of relationships?

Trying to fit in and be the person others expect us to be.

The idol of sports?

I love sports and you won’t find a pastor who likes to talk more about sports than this guy, but they can quickly turn into an idol if we aren’t careful!

The idol of politics, social media, or work?

Friends, there are so many idols out there that are trying to distract us from worshipping and trusting in the One true God!