Faith over Fear(6)

Faith is the Victory. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Church, do you believe that this morning. Do you believe that your faith in your savior is what’s going to allow you to persevere in this life?

This life has its challenges. It has its ups and downs. All of us go through times of great joy. For example, there is nothing more joyous than celebrating new life being able to hold a newborn baby in your arms for the first time. Shaun and Mary Francis are experiencing this great joy currently in their lives. It’s also a joyous occasion to witness two people be joined in marriage as many of us witnessed just yesterday. Its also a joyous occasion when we are able to witness and welcome a new brothers or sisters into the family of God after they have had their sins washed away.

As joyous as these occasions are and many other occasions in our lives unfortunately our lives are not only filled with joyous occasion but also there is times in our lives we go through much sorrow, pain, and suffering. Most of us here today have set at the bed side of a loved one as they passed from this life. We have experienced the great sorrow that comes over us in times like this. Some of us have experienced difficulty in life because of lost jobs, financial struggles and the list goes on and on.

The question before us this morning is how do we have faith in Him or how do we remain faithful to him no matter what situation we find ourselves in currently in life.

How can we live a life faithful to God that we too could find our names written in the great hall of faith chapter found in Hebrews 11.

What would be written about you and your life when it comes to the faith that you have demonstrated in your life. What would follow if we read by faith Jim Casebeer. By Faith Lucy Pullins, by faith Jagger Rogers. By faith add your name…

This morning I want to look at a very well-known story in the book a Daniel. And see what we can learn about what it takes to live a life of faithfulness to God through the ups and down in our lives.

The story that I would like us to consider this morning is the story of S, M & A.

In the book of Daniel, we read about these three men along with their friend Daniel. The story begins with them immediately going through difficulty in their life when they are ripped from their families and exiled but even though they were taken from their homes they immediately found themselves in a pretty decent situation. Because they were blessed with knowledge, wisdom, a good appearance they found themselves in the king’s palace being educated and well taken care of by the King of Babylon.

Starting in verse 8 of chapter one we learn that Daniel along with C,M,A during this good moment in their life remained faithful to God by not allowing themselves to be defiled by the food and drink that the king wanted everyone to partake in.

In fact, these men convinced those over them to start feeding everyone vegetables and water so that no one would be defiled. And guess what? Verse 17 tells us that because of their faithfulness to God they were blessed not only by God but also the King found them to be 10X better than all of the rest of the people that were being educated by the King. (Vs 20)

What we learn in the early part of this story is that S,M,A remained faithful to God during the good times in their life. For most of us here this morning it is easy to follow the example of S,M,A when everything is going right but it is a whole different ballgame to follow the example of faithfulness that we learn from them moving forward especially the faith demonstrated by them in chapter 3 of the book of Daniel.

Up until chapter 3 of Daniel everything was going perfect for S,M,A Then all of a sudden King Neb. got what he thought was a brilliant idea and he built a 90 ft golden image and in verse 4 of Daniel he gave this decree;

Daniel 3:4–6 ESV

And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.”

4 And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, 5 that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.”

But not just any furnace a furnace that was heated seven times its normal temperature. It was so hot that those that would eventually throw S, M, A into this furnace were killed instantly because of the tremendous heat.

S.,M., & A. had to make a very difficult decision. Are they to remain faithful to God or are they going to serve the king?

Often times we find ourselves in similar situations, do we not? We may not have to choose which God to serve but we do have to make choices in life to keep the faith by going against what the world says and choosing to put God first.

Examples; Job; turn down a promotion; Sports, choose your friends based on your faith ( love God first)

We are faced with decisions on a daily basis to do the right thing, to demonstrate our faith in Jesus Christ. How do we respond to the challenge?

I pray that we are able to respond like that of S, M, A. Let’s listen to how they responded to this challenge.

Daniel 3:16–18 ESV

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.[d] 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

As you have just heard and because you know the rest of the story S, M, A were up for the challenge and their faith in God prevailed and because of their faith in God, God delivered them from the fiery furnace, if you aren’t familiar with this story keep reading through the end of the chapter.

But this morning I want you to pay very close attention to the response that C, M, A gave to the King. It is important that we notice that there is no conditional clause in their response.

So many times, in our lives we like to place conditions on things. For example, I will do this if you do this. God, I will serve you if you help me through this difficult time in my life. God, I will serve you if you heal my loved one.

Church a person of true faith never says if. S, M, & A, did not say “if”. They didn’t say we will serve God if he delivers us from the furnace. They said whether our God saves us or not we will serve our God, and we will never serve you oh King.

In my life these words from S, M, A have helped me to remember to stay focused on serving God no matter what life threw at me. I remember the first time I ever really paid attention to the words spoken by these three men. I was sitting in a class over the book of Daniel and Revelation at Harding University. I remember not being able to pay attention because the night before my granny whom I lived with at the time, had been taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Burt some how I was listening at just the right time when my professor pointed out to us the importance of their response to the King.

I realized then that whether God healed my granny or not I still had to serve him no matter what. Because I realized that my faith in Him meant victory. Faith is the victory for not only me but my granny as well.

In the book of Hebrews where we find this long list of faithful followers of Christ the whole book is written to encourage others to follow in their footsteps just like we should S, M, A.

But the wonderful thing is, the Hebrew writer doesn’t just say follow their example, but he informs us how and why they remained faithful.

There are several times when the author gives us confidence to remain faithful for example after reminding his audience of the suffering, they have gone through in their lives he says this to them in 10:35-36

Hebrews 10:35–36 ESV

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, (or do not through aways your faith) which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

Then skip down with me to 11:6

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

How are we to remain faithful and serve God no matter what. Because Faith is the victory. Our faith is what secures our reward. Our faith is what secures our promised reward.

But as helpful as these verses are as we close; I want to direct your attention to a verse that many of us can quote by memory. But unfortunately for me I have been misquoting this passage.

The passage is Hebrews 9:27

Hebrews 9:27 ESV

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

I often quoted this passage to the certainty of death and that we are all going to be judged on the day of judgment. Now that teaching is biblical and can be supported in other passages in the book of Hebrews but that was not the authors intention with this passage.

The author was not trying to scare people about the impending judgment but rather he was trying to bolster the faith of the people who were going through difficult times.

Notice with me again the passage, Hebrews 9:27-28

Hebrews 9:27–28 ESV

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

What the author is saying is because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ everyone must die once but no one has to die twice. The purpose of judgment for the righteous is so that those who are eagerly waiting for him, those who are remaining faithful will be saved.

I believe that S,M,A had to have some understanding of this concept in their minds. They believed that their God could deliver them out of the fiery furnace alive; but they also knew that even if he didn’t that their God, our God would deliver them from a second death that would be certain if they violated Their God’s law and worshiped the golden image.

May we all have faith like S, M, A so we too can look forward to the coming judgment because our faith is the victory for us.