Even If
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If you were here last Sunday than you know that for my final few weeks here at FGt I am working on a series of messages that I am calling These Are a Few of My Favourite Things based on some of my most favourite scripture passages
Last week we looked at
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
This week I want to take you back into the Old Testament for one of the more popular stories in the book
It’s found in Daniel chapter 3 and it is of course the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace
We’ll briefly talk about the whole story but, like last week, I want to focus my attention on 3 particular verses
But before we get to them we have to set it all up
In 586 B.C King Nebuchadnezzar completed a 3 year siege of Jerusalem by ransacking the city, destroying the temple and taking any remaining Jews captive and transported them back to Babylon
If you ever want to do a study on a really interesting person, can I suggest Nebuchadnezzar
Now I wouldn’t say this if I wasn’t leaving in a couple weeks but Nebuchadnezzar strikes me as having a lot in common with Donald Trump
Anyway, shortly after bringing the Jews to Babylon as his captives, Nebby, (sorry but it much easier than typing out Nebuchadnezzar over and over again) so Nebby builds this giant statue
Verse 1 tells us that it was 90 feet high
90 feet!
To try and put that into perspective, the ceiling in the sanctuary is about 20 feet giver or take, so if you stacked this sanctuary up on top of each other 4 1/2 times you’d have the height of the statue
Verse 1 also tells us that the statue was 9 feet wide, the communion table is 6 feet so it is 1.5 communion tables or almost as wide as this front portion of this platform
Now we don’t know what it was a statue of, it could have been one of the gods that Nebby served but most Bible scholars believe it was an image of King Nebby himself
Once the statue is complete there’s a giant get together of all of the whose who of Babylon and when the band signals, everyone has been ordered to bow down and worship this statue
And everyone does, everyone that is except for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
A few busybodies see this and waste no time in tattling on the 3 Hebrews and so Nebby calls for the boys
Verse 13 tells us that Nebby was “Furious with rage” when he summoned for them, now if I can just pause to offer you some free advice, it’s never a good idea to make the most powerful man in the world furious with rage
Especially not somebody as mentally unstable as Nebby
So the boys are brought before the king, a very intimidating situation to say the least, and Nebby gives them 1 more chance to atone for their mistake but if they don’t, he says, “Who is the god who can rescue you from my power?”
And this brings us to the 3 verses that I want to focus my attention on today, verses 16-18
(The Message)
16–18 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, “Your threat means nothing to us. If you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you might cook up, O king. But even if he doesn’t, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference, O king. We still wouldn’t serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”
This morning I want to look at 3 lessons on the kind of faith that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had which is the kind of faith that we should also have
The first lesson is found in verse 16 and that is that they had the kind of faith is does not get threatened
Think about their situation for a second, they could not have been in a worse scenario
They were outnumbered, surrounded, faced with a furious and powerful man and I expect that the furnace they were threatened with was probably within sight as I believe it was most likely used in the construction of the idol
I can’t think of anything that would have made their situation worse
But their situation never once threatened their faith
What is it that you are faced with today? Maybe everything is going okay for you right now, or maybe you are staring into the face of your worst nightmare
A doctor’s report, a family situation, your favourite Pastor leaving
What ever it is, whatever your Nebuchadnezzar, don’t let it threaten your faith today
Ephesians
according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
1 Corinthians
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
And this verse brings us to the second lesson learned which is found in verse 17, “The God we serve can rescue us”
Their faith was in God and God alone
I think that one of the major mistakes that we make in modern day Christianity is that we replace faith in God with faith in faith
This, I believe is a result of the “word of faith” movement that has been so popular in so many churches
The focus of their faith was first, foremost, and only God
There was a popular song on the christian charts not too long ago by Natalie Grant called more than anything and I think the lyrics to this song describe beautifully my point here
I know if you wanted to you could wave your hand
Spare me this heartache and change your plan
And I know when he said that you could take my pain away
But even if you don't I pray
And I know when he said that you could take my pain away But even if you don't I pray Help me want the healer more than the healing Help me want the savior more than the saving Help me want the giver more than the giving Oh help me want you Jesus more than anything You know more than anyone that my flesh is weak And you know I'd give anything for a remedy And I'll ask a thousand more times to set me free today Oh but even if you don't I pray Help me want the healer more than the healing Help me want the savior more than the saving Help me want the giver more than the giving Oh help me want you Jesus more than anything Oh when I'm desperate and my heart's overcome All that I need you've already done, oh When I'm desperate and my heart's overcome All that I need you've already done Oh Jesus help me want you more than anything Help me want the healer more than the healing Help me want the savior more than the saving Help me want the giver more than the giving Oh help me want you Jesus more than anything Help me want you Jesus more than anything
Help me want the healer more than the healing
Help me want the savior more than the saving
Help me want the giver more than the giving
Oh help me want you Jesus more than anything
You know more than anyone that my flesh is weak
And you know I'd give anything for a remedy
And I'll ask a thousand more times to set me free today
Oh but even if you don't I pray
Help me want the healer more than the healing
Help me want the savior more than the saving
Help me want the giver more than the giving
Oh help me want you Jesus more than anything
Oh when I'm desperate and my heart's overcome
All that I need you've already done,
oh When I'm desperate and my heart's overcome
All that I need you've already done
Oh Jesus help me want you more than anything
Help me want the healer more than the healing
Help me want the savior more than the saving
Help me want the giver more than the giving
Oh help me want you Jesus more than anything
Help me want you Jesus more than anything
And this leads us nicely into our third lesson learned which is they had the kind of faith that does not compromise
Verse 18 contains 2 of the most powerful words in all of the scriptures
In fact I would put them just slightly below “Jesus Died”
Those 2 words of course are “even if”
Even if it costs us our lives, even if God doesn’t heal me or that person that I’ve been praying for, even if it would mean gaining the whole world, I will not compromise this faith that I have in God
My faith is not dependent upon God doing something for me, it is completed in what God has already done for me
They easily could have knelt in front of this statue knowing that it was nothing more than a man-made object, after all it would seem like all the other Jews were doing it
They could have rationalized that they were of more use to God alive than dead
There are a lot of rationalizations that they could have made and nobody, then or now, would have faulted them for doing so
But they wouldn’t, they couldn’t, nothing was going to make them compromise their faith, not the food that they were offered when they first arrived, not the culture that they were immersed in, not even the promise of being spared a certain death
What is it that you are willing to compromise your faith for?
Your reputation, your health, more money, more toys
Whatever it is I can promise you that, if he hasn’t already, the enemy will dangle that in front of you like a carrot in front of a donkey
If he did it to Jesus in the desert during His 40 days of temptation then you can be certain that he is going to do it to you as well
Are you ready for it? Do you have on the armour of God in preparation to make a stand?
I want you to realize something this morning that might surprise you, you see the enemy doesn’t want to steal your faith, he just wants to compromise it
Are you prepared to look the enemy square in the eye and say “Even if”?
Even if everyone else turns away, even if it means I walk the straight and narrow road all alone, even if you offer me all the kingdoms of this world
I will not compromise my faith
For Joshua it meant prison, for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego it meant the furnace, for Daniel it meant the Lion’s den, For John the baptist it meant losing his head, for Jesus it meant the cross, for the disciples it meant, jail, beatings, threats and eventually martyrdom
What is it going to mean for you? I don’t know!
All I can tell you is what Jesus said, and with this I close
Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
let’s pray