Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.11UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.09UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.54LIKELY
Sadness
0.5LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.82LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.21UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.8LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.79LIKELY
Extraversion
0.14UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.67LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.76LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
What is something you’d like
to accomplish in the future?
What are some sacrifices you’d have to make?
Would they be worth it?
THIS WEEK’S focus
We have so many opportunities to go along with the crowd.
We might watch a movie we don’t really want to see just because everyone else does.
We might go to a party that makes us uncomfortable because we want a place to belong.
In big ways and small ways, our lives are filled with choices.
Not all of those choices will put our faith on the line, but many of them will.
Many of them will mean honoring God or not.
As followers of Christ, our faith will often mean that we don’t blend in or go with the crowd.
We might have to make a different choice and risk sticking out.
Daniel’s friends had to make the ultimate choice of either following God even to death or denying God to save themselves.
They demonstrated that believers are called to be faithful at all costs.
Central Truth
Believers are called to remain faithful at all costs.
CONTEXT | Why was the king making everyone worship a statue?
As a bold statement of his own power and authority, Nebuchadnezzar had a giant golden statue— about 90 feet tall—built in Babylon (v. 1).
We don’t know if the image was of him, a Babylonian god, or something else.
But we know that it was an image declaring the power and superiority of Babylon, and the king demanded that all the leaders come and worship it (v.
5).
Nebuchadnezzar knew that if he could get the leaders of Babylon to worship the idol, then the people would follow suit.
The king needed to know his leaders and the people were loyal to him.
The dream that Daniel had interpreted for him affirmed stability and power in his life, but that it was going to be diminished at some point (Dan.
2).
He was going to do everything in his power to determine who was for him and eliminate whoever was against him.
Anyone who refused to worship the golden image would pay the price (3:6).
In the only portion of the book that doesn’t include Daniel, we find his friends (now called by their new Baylonian names, see 1:7) standing in opposition to the king’s orders.
Having been instructed to bow down and worship his golden image, the three men refused.
Brought before the king, the men were given an opportunity to change their minds and follow the king’s command.
But they would not be shaken or threatened enough to be disobedient to their God.
1.
What were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s responses to the king’s threat?
2. What does their response say about their vies of God?
If going into the furnace to their death was the cost of obedience, then they were willing to pay the price.
They had no idea if God would get them out.
But their faith wasn’t dependent on whether or not God rescued them.
They wouldn’t worship another god, regardless of the punishment.
But they were still confident that if anyone had the power to rescue them from such peril, it would be their God alone.
Faith in the one true God was their only strength in the face of fear and pressure to conform to the world.
Key Question
3. How do the three men’s faith and action challenge us not to give in to peer pressure?
How did their actions demonstrate their faith?
We might never find ourselves staring down a fiery furnace with our name on it.
But there will be many smaller opportunities in our lives to deny God in exchange for the easier choice.
We will be tempted to say less about our faith when it makes others uncomfortable.
We will want to give up on relationships, jobs, and difficult decisions when faith demands we trust beyond what we can see.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had no means of seeing or knowing the outcome of their act of faith.
But they knew the faithfulness of the God they served.
So, they went anyway.
4. Why did the king respond even more harshly than he had initially threatened?
5. Why was the king so enraged?
Everyone else had bowed to the statue as he commanded, so why were these three men so crucial?
Nebuchadnezzar followed through on his threat.
The three Hebrew men had refused to worship his idol, even if it meant death.
He was so enraged in his pride that he ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual.
It was so hot, the king’s guards died just getting the men into it.
With an overheated furnace and the men fully bound, there would be no way out for them.
The king wasn’t taking any chances.
Any kind of escape would certainly be a miracle.
The king had undoubtedly felt threatened by the men’s refusal to worship.
Their actions had undermined his authority, and his response was clearly an overreaction.
Even though everyone else had followed his orders, he would make an example of the three who refused.
It seems a bit extreme that he would go to such lengths when everyone else had done as he commanded.
But these men were refusing to conform because of their God.
That meant they were answering to someone higher than Nebuchadnezzar, which didn’t sit well with the Babylonian king.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise when God’s people are persecuted— not in the Book of Daniel and not today.
From where we sit—with privilege and freedom to worship whomever and wherever we choose—we can forget that people suffer everyday around the world for claiming the name of Jesus.
We might forget what Jesus promised His disciples: the world will always be opposed to Him, and they will also be opposed to us who choose to follow Him (John 15:18-25).
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were persecuted for choosing to follow the God of Israel, and they were rejected for it—even to the brink of death.
Be Vulnerable
These three men were facing the ultimate challenge of their faith.
Consider sharing your own “even if He doesn’t” statement.
For example, “Even if He doesn’t give me the success I hoped for . . .
” or “Even if He doesn’t give me the relationship I desire . . .
” How have you been or will you be faithful, even if God doesn’t move in the specific way you want?
6.
How did God provide in a seemingly impossible circumstance?
Who was in the fire with the men?
Once the men were thrown in the furnace, the king looked in, fully expecting to see them quickly burned up in the flames.
After all, his guards had perished just from getting close!
Yet, he not only saw them alive and unbound, but also saw a fourth person in there with them—one that looked like “a son of the gods.”
Even in the most dire of circumstances, God was protecting His servants.
7. What does it say about God that the men were completely unharmed?
How did this demonstrate God’s power to the king and his advisors?
8. How did Nebuchadnezzar recognize God at work in this miraculous rescue?
Central Truth
Believers are called to remain faithful at all costs.
9. What hard choices do we have to make to be faithful in our daily lives?
10.
How can you be intentional in praying for Christians around the world who are persecuted for following Jesus?
11.
Where do you struggle to be faithful in the face of peer pressure?
How might God be challenging you to be bold in your faith?
12.
Where do you need to trust God’s character, regardless of the outcome of your circumstances?
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9