Where's your worship?

Intro

Need

Prop: Worship yourself and be ruined or worship God and be rescued

Transition

Follow Neb’s actions and DON’T BE LIKE NEB

Create an image and post it have people bow down through likes and comments

Coffee budget

In Daniel 3 we see King Neb go insane - he worships himself

1. Ruin of Self Worship v.1-6

Were going to see the 3 phases leading to Nebs ruin

a. Neb worships himself v. 1

We didn’t have time to look at the dream that kept Neb up at night last week BUT whats interesting is he had a dream of a statue and the head of the statue was Gold representing Babylon

So he went from giving glory to God for revealing the dream to giving glory to himself for being the ‘golden boy’ of the dream

It’s unclear who this statute represents whether it’s Neb himself or his patron god ‘Nebo’

Cubit = distance from elbow to tip of middle finger & Babylonia cubit = 19.8 in

So it was roughly 100 feet tall & 10 feet wide (10 story building, 2 shipping container, a blue whale)

Of Gold, covered in gold not pure gold because there wasn’t enough in all of Babylon to make that

There was no confusion as to what this statue was about…Neb, it was about him

He was so full of himself, thinking of himself, caring for himself that he expressed it through his own golden statue of liberty

LOOK UP - Have you found yourself this deep in self worship?

Now you might say “NO WAY” this guy is arrogant, full of himself like a huge golden statue in the middle of everything

But his worship of himself is only amplified because of His position, power and wealth

Ours may be more subtle because of its smaller platfrom

ILLUS: Think about guys today who LOVE themselves, I think of Connor McGregor

“We’re not here to take part we’re here to take over”

“And I’d just like to say from the bottom of my heart, I’d like to take this chance to apologize — to absolutely nobody, I do what I want”

“Me and Jesus are cool. I’m cool with all the gods. Gods recognize gods”

We look at him and say he’s morally corrupt, I AM BETTER THAN HIM and have just commited the same thing, we just don’t have the money and fame to make it look as bad.

Our self worship is more subtle it expresses itself in the use of our time, resources and relationships

Time - we spend majority of our time doing what pleases us - procrastinating, video gaming, netflixing, youtubing, (verbs for Pat) ALL BECAUSE IT PLEASES US - were like the king being fed grapes and fanned w/ palm branches

Resources - our money - as teens maybe you don’t have much but whatever you have is most definitely for you. We toil over what to buy, where to spend it because we want to do what makes us the most satisfied with our money, we are our own offering box.

Relationships - we hang with people who benefit us, are nice to us, are similar to us, who like us BECAUSE thats who WE enjoy. We probably never go out of our way to be friends with people different then us because “we don’t have anything in common”. Friend groups are okay, you will connect with certain people better than others BUT relationships ARE not merely for your own pleasure - Biblically they are for others.

What benefit did Jesus get from his 12 friends? They questioned him, they disagreed with his plans, they didn’t trust him, they slept instead of praying for him when he needed it most, and one betrayed him to his enemies, leading to his crucifixion.

Self worship leads to ruin and it starts w/ orienting your time, resources, relationships and life around your glory

b. Neb makes others worship him v. 2-5

Neb wasn’t satisfied with a statue, he wanted people to WORSHIP the statue.

So he invited everyone who was anyone in leadership of Babylon to his party. (Tone-def: Imagine if you were to throw your own party celebrating you for no reason)

But it gets worse; if you don’t come and behave you die

So when the royal orchestra plays everyone forehead hits the ground

Neb wanted others to worship him they way He did

This is NEBS second phase leading to RUIN

Sure you may not ask people to bow down to you physically but tell me, does this sound familiar

Neb made and image, put it up for ALL to see and then asked that everyone show their appreciation

We take an image, often of ourselves, post it for everyone to see and ask that everyone show their appreciation through a double tap

“yeah but I don’t threaten to kill them if they don’t” no we just are offended, we make sure to not like their picture, we unfollow them as a consequence of their failure to submit.

How about this;

At the moment the people heard a noise, they immediately looked down in obedience and worship

When the box in our pocket makes a noise we immediately look down in obedience

Now it may sound like a stretch but think about it, what you give attention to is what you find important

When God’s word is being preached and you hear that noise or feel that buzz you look down and check it, you engage with it - and have just shown where your allegiance lies. It’s always a concern about others, “what did this person say to me, what did they post, I’ll respond real quick” and we have unintentionally taken the second step towards the ruin of self worship

You’ll see in a second how far Neb is willing to go to get what HE THINKS he deserves but first recognize how EASY the enemy has made the steps for you, how subtle self worship is. It no longer requires a 100 foot statue, it’s aided by phones but doesn't require them.

The reason that you have problems with that other kid is because they didn’t treat you they way you THINK YOU DESERVE - you’ve become like Neb, don’t be like Neb, learn from him

c. Neb is willing to sin/kill to get there v.6

The final step to get to ruin is how far you will go

Now we know how extra Neb can be, last week he threatened to tear the wise guys limbs off and turn their houses into manuer piles, this week he says if you don’t come to my party and bring me a gift I’ll burn you alive.

Now there consequences for those who don’t obey.

Pride turns you into a tyrant and obviously the more power you have the greater the consequence will be for those who don’t do what you want them to do.

Me wanting seconds.

If I don’t get what I want I go eat brookes fav dessert

we still do this on a bigger scale When our parents don’t bow down by saying yes, when our friends don’t bow down by always including us, when our teachers don’t bow down by giving us an A - they face the fiery furnace of our door slamming, of us shunning them, of us slandering them and reconciliation will not take place until they kiss the ring and please us

Culmination of ruin = v. 19 - I wanna jump a little ahead to show you how bad it gets, the full ruin of Neb - were gonna see 3 young dudes don’t obey his commands and he becomes so crazy he starts making faces at them and heats the furnace up 7 times hotter - which actually does the opposite of what he wants, the hotter it is the quicker the death. But he doesn’t care about logic he is ruined, he lost it and it actually gets worse in the next chapter he starts acting like an animal.

But the point? Self worship will feel good in the moment BUT it will never be enough. It molds you into an egomaniac. It leads to your ruin BUT there is hope, for those who recognize they are leaning towards self worship there is the RESCUE of TRUE WORSHIP

2. Rescue of true worship

To break down this rescue of true worship we will look at the 3 actions these boys took and the first action was to STAND UP...

a. Stand Up v.7-12

ILLUS: Everyone stand up, In a moment i’m gonna have you all do Babylonian greetings BUT when the music plays you must become silent and sit down except for these 3 okay?

Now remember theres actually 2 noises one of the blazing furnace awaiting the ‘disobedient’ and the other is the music. No one there could have dreamed of not bowing down immediately, it’d mean they could never see their family again, they could never ask that girl to prom, they couldn’t have their dream wedding, I mean its costing them literally everything.

Okay do the Babylonian greeting.... MUSIC.. everyone sits except the three

Picture the moment - fields of babylon 3 young guys standing - how uncomfortable, how scary - yet it was non optional for them, they had to stand up because God is clear that we are not to worship ANY other gods

True worship isn’t bound or determined by mob rule, doesn’t matter what others think, it has one goal - honoring God, nothing else matters.

First action was to stand up and the second action was to trsut God

b. Trust God v.13-18

Obviously Neb wasn’t happy, he brings them in and questions them and reminds them of his furnace and listen to their response

Weve made our move, were sticking to it and we trust God with the outcome; he will either rescue us from the fire and if he doesn’t, so be it were going to heaven

You can trust God when you know who God is - because he is bigger, he is stronger and more powerful than anyone or anything else. Nothing can compete with him. He is the uncreated one. He has no master, he has no equal.

ILLUS: Trust Fall

Dreyson catching biggest person there - does it work?

Biggest person catching dreyson - how about now?

We have an infinite God - who has said Heb 13:5 “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,””

He loves you, he cares for you - Worship Him by trusting Him and finally the last action the boys took...

c. Get Hot v. 19-30

They didn’t just talk the talk but they walked the walk

It’s one thing to say “i’d do a trust fall with you, it’s another thing to actually do it”

They didn’t get to the edge of the furnace and say okay looks like God isn’t rescuing us so we will bow, they just went right in

This is true worship - “yielding up their bodies” - Rom 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

James says Faith without works is dead

Go and do it.

Don’t say “I need to read more” - just wake up and read

Don’t say “I need to pray more” - pray

Don’t say “I should evangelize”- speak up, reach out

Don’t say “I should repent of sin” - confess it, turn from it and change

Live out your faith, practice what you preach, fall from the chair

Get Hot because God will rescue those who place their faith in Him

He was there in the fire to save the 3 boys and he did the same thing for us

Because Nebs punishment for not worshipping him was a hot furnace but that was fueled by his own sin

God’s punishment for our sin is fair, it is eternal and its hotter than a furnace

Matt 25 calls Hell an eternal fire, Matt 5 says its fiery hell

This is no exaggeration this is reality and it is the punishment we must all endure to pay for our sin BUT God is a rescuer and Jesus went into the fiery furnace reserved for us, took the full amount of punishment we deserve so that if we surrender our lives, repent from our sin and worship him we can be rescued.

Apart from Christ you are walking into an eternal furnace, Jesus has provided you the way out, will you take it and worship the true God or will you worship yourself all the way to Hell?

Final thought:

Know - That God is all powerful creator and loving father, you can trust Him

Feel - Respond tonight in thankfulness that God saved you from the ruin of self worship and the penalty of sin by going to the cross

Think - Consider/ examine ways in which you have worshipped yourself, time, resources, relationships

Do - Take action, stand up when others bow down, do whats right even if you don’t feel like it, be who you claim to be and practice what you preach