When the Heat is on! Part 2
Starting the Year with Daniel • Sermon • Submitted
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· 18 viewsWe saw how Daniel got promoted after facing his mission impossible. And how his 3 friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, got promoted after the heat was put on them. We learned from these prisoners of war a number of principles applicable to us when the heat is on us. The culture and generation that will live in threatens our resolve to stand firm in our faith. We could get caught up with peer & social pressures. When the heat is on us, we must Hang on and know that help is coming. Expect that God is a very able God that delivers us. Announce all the more our loyalty to God, and Trust in Him always. What happens when we trust God in the furnace? He will walk through the fire with me. Everything that tied me down will be burned. Almighty God will make sure that I come out unharmed. This will bring unbelievers to God.
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Opening
Opening
Once a spider built a beautiful web in an old house. He kept it clean and shiny so that flies would patronize it. The minute he got a "customer" he would clean up after him so the other flies would not get suspicious.
Then one day this fairly intelligent fly came buzzing by the clean spiderweb. Old man spider called out, "Come in and sit." But the fairly intelligent fly said, "No sir. I don’t see other flies in your house, and I’m not going in alone!" But presently, he saw on the floor below a large crowd of flies dancing around on a piece of brown paper. He was delighted! He was not afraid if lots of flies were doing it. So he came in for a landing.
Just before he landed, a bee zoomed by, saying, "Don’t land there, stupid! That’s flypaper!" But the fairly intelligent fly shouted back, "Don’t be silly. Those flies are dancing. There’s a big crowd there. Everybody’s doing it. That many flies can’t be wrong!" Well, you know what happened. He died on the spot.
Some of us want to be with the crowd so badly that we wind up in a mess. What does it profit a fly (or person) if he escapes the web only to end up in the glue?
BREATHE!
Since we started this series we called: “Starting the Year with Daniel”
We saw how Daniel got promoted after facing his mission impossible
We saw how his 3 friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, got promoted after the heat was put on them
We learned from these prisoners of war a number of things that you shall do when the heat is on you:
Hang on, and know that Help is Coming
Expect that God is a very Able God that delivers us
Announce our loyalty to God
and to Trust in Him always
BREATHE!
PEER PRESSURE AND FLIES
Once a spider built a beautiful web in an old house. He kept it clean and shiny so that flies would patronize it. The minute he got a "customer" he would clean up after him so the other flies would not get suspicious.
Then one day this fairly intelligent fly came buzzing by the clean spiderweb. Old man spider called out, "Come in and sit." But the fairly intelligent fly said, "No sir. I don’t see other flies in your house, and I’m not going in alone!" But presently, he saw on the floor below a large crowd of flies dancing around on a piece of brown paper. He was delighted! He was not afraid if lots of flies were doing it. So he came in for a landing.
Just before he landed, a bee zoomed by, saying, "Don’t land there, stupid! That’s flypaper!" But the fairly intelligent fly shouted back, "Don’t be silly. Those flies are dancing. There’s a big crowd there. Everybody’s doing it. That many flies can’t be wrong!" Well, you know what happened. He died on the spot.
Some of us want to be with the crowd so badly that we wind up in a mess. What does it profit a fly (or person) if he escapes the web only to end up in the glue?
In this culture and generation that we live in, there could be many different ways that our society can put the heat on us
It could be that your peers are pressuring you to conform to their ways even though what they asked of you to do, runs counter against our faith
Smoke weed
Pre-marital sex
Gambling (depending on good luck, rather than on God’s blessings)
Excessive alcohol drinking
Unfair business practice
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
BREATHE!
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.
15-17
Text: Daniel 3:1:30 The Image of Gold and the Blazing Furnace
Text: Daniel 3:1:30 The Image of Gold and the Blazing Furnace
See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
Daniel 3:1-30
We saw how steadfast Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
What happens when we put our trust in the Lord? When we hang on, and Expect that God is a very able God that delivers?
The Image of Gold and the Blazing Furnace
We saw how firm their faith in God is
They stood up for what they believed, and they did not falter even the heat was put on them
They hang on, knowing that help from God is coming
They expect that the Most High God is a very able God that will deliver them through the fire
In the middle of their great crisis, they announce all the more their loyalty to God
And they put their complete trust in the Lord
For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there.”
See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
Isaiah
BREATHE!
What Happens When We Trust God in the Furnace?
What Happens When We Trust God in the Furnace?
What happens when we hang on?
What happens when we expect that God is a very able God that delivers?
What happens when we trust God, when the heat is on us?
BREATHE!
He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
Daniel
go ahead and underscore “walking around”, “unbound” and “unharmed”
From being the meanest persecutor to becoming the boldest witness for the Lord Jesus
He
In his life we will see
He will walk through the fire with me
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
:
Around 100 years before Daniel (600 B.C.), Isaiah prophesied these words (700B.C.)
He started with a couple of things that had happened before him
First, he alluded to the Israelites when they crossed the Red Sea (around 1500 B.C.)
And then, he pointed to the Israelites then they crossed the Jordan River (around 1400 BC.)
After that, he prophesied about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego thrown in the blazing furnace (600 B.C.)
When the heat is on you, the Lord will walk with you
We might not literally have to walk through fire, but in our daily lives, we could be subjected to various nature of heat....
When the heat is on you, the Lord will walk with you
BREATHE!
You may not be literally thrown into the blazing furnace, but you can be in
Everything that tied me down will be burned
Jesus said to the Jews that believed in Him, “if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.
but they answered, “we’re Abraham’s descendants, and have never been slaves to anyone, how can you say that we shall be set free?
Jesus replied, “very truly I tell you, everyone who sins, is a slave to sin. Slaves has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever”.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John
After the teachers of the law and that pharisees brought to Jesus a woman caught in the act adultery, there was intense dispute between the pharisees and the Lord Jesus
So the freedom that Jesus discussed here, is the freedom from the slavery of sin
And walking through the fire with the Lord will burn everything that tied us down
but they answered, “we’re Abraham’s descendants, and have never been slaves to anyone, how can you say that we shall be set free?
BREATHE!
Jesus replied, “very truly I tell you, everyone who sins, is a slave to sin. Slaves has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever”.
Almighty God will make sure that I come out unharmed
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
Psalm 91:14
Yahweh personally assures the trusting followers and promises future help and blessings
From being the meanest persecutor to becoming the boldest witness for the Lord Jesus
Yahweh personally assures the trusting follower and promises future help and blessings
BREATHE!
He
Barry, J.D. et al., 2012, 2016. Faithlife Study Bible, Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
In his life we will see
This will bring unbelievers to God
Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way.”
Daniel
A pagan king, who caused the destruction of Jerusalem, took the people of God as captives or POW’s, was converted, not by what he heard, but by what he saw
The display of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s solid faith, witnessed to Nebuchadnezzar, and eventually turned him to the Most High God and praised Him
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
BREATHE!
Daniel is one of the major prophets that has ever lived
From being the meanest persecutor to becoming the boldest witness for the Lord Jesus
A great prophet, promoted as an administrator of a foreign land
He
In his life we will see
Taken away from his parents, from his community, from his culture
But Babylon failed to take from him, his faith in God
The heat was on him many occasions in his lifetime
But his unwavering faith and trust in the Lord delivered him from execution, delivered him from the lions
While God calls us to be his people (set apart), he also commands us to go into all the world and share the good news of Jesus
We can be people who stand firm and love well.
We can be people who stand firm and love well.
Prayer
Prayer