“Gone Too Far, pt. 1” – FBC Morning Light (11/23/2023)

Well, a good Thanksgiving day. I hope you have a wonderful day today, and living the day in the context of gratitude, just aware of so many things that we have to be grateful for.

I hope you'll take some time to just mull over some of those things. We read in 1

John 4, one of our passages for today's Scripture reading, something very profound to be grateful for.

It's in 1 John 4, and it speaks of the love of God. He says in verse 7, let's love one another for love is of God.

Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. And then verse 9, he says, in this, this is the way

God manifested his love toward us, that he sent his only begotten

Son into the world that we might live through him. Of all the things that you express gratitude for today, begin with this.

Thank you, Father, for your immeasurable love toward us and toward me personally, that you sent

Jesus to come into this world to die on a cross so that I might live and have everlasting life.

Thank you, Father, for your great love, and thank you for this tremendous gift.

We have a lot to be grateful for today. I want to also this morning go back to Daniel chapters 3 and 4, the other couple of chapters in our

Bible reading plan today, and just point out that one of the ways that government, the institution of government, can overstep its proper authority is by telling people how, what, when, and or where they have to worship.

We see that in Daniel chapter 3, when Nebuchadnezzar the king issues this command of the big statue to be set up, and then declares that whenever all these different instruments of music are played, that the people have to bow down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

What the king is doing here, what the government is doing, is telling people how to worship, where to worship, when to worship, and what to worship.

That's overstepping their bounds. Daniel, and especially the focus in chapter 3 here, is on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

They don't comply. They face the threat of being thrown into a burning fiery furnace.

You know the story well, but they don't comply. They refuse to comply.

That's exactly the way God's people must respond if the institution of government oversteps its authority by telling us how to worship, when to worship, where to worship, and what to worship.

We say, nope, nope, not going to do that. You don't have the right to tell us these things.

You don't have the right to tell us when to worship. You don't have the right to tell us how to worship. You don't have the right to tell us where we can and can't worship.

You don't have the right to do that. We're going to worship as God tells us to worship, and as God prescribes how we worship, and God tells us whom to worship, we're going to obey

God, and not you. But doing so, we also have to be willing to accept the consequences.

That's exactly what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did. They said, we're not going to do this. The king said, if you don't do it,

I'm going to throw you in a fiery furnace, and you're going to die. Their response is, you do what you will, but we're not going to bow down.

We're not going to worship the way you tell us to worship. The rest of the story,

God honored that faithful obedience. Obedience to God, and not to this governmental authority.

We're going to see two sides of this coin of government overreach here in Daniel. Today in chapter 3, with the three

Hebrew children who are threatened with and then thrown into the fiery furnace, because government oversteps its bounds by telling people how, when, where, and what to worship.

Tomorrow, we'll look at another example of government overreach that we must also defy.

On this Thanksgiving Day, let's be grateful not only that we have the great love of God expressed toward us in the

Savior Jesus Christ, but let's be grateful that to this point, right now in our nation, we have the freedom to worship whom we wish, where, how, and when.

We can be thankful for that as well. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful today on this

Thanksgiving Day, thankful for your love for us, that you manifested it in such a way that God became flesh and dwelt among us, and died on a cross for our sins, that we might live and have everlasting life.

Thank you for your great love. Also, Father, we thank you for living in a country right now where we have such freedom of worship.

We don't have a government over us telling us whom we have to worship, and when, and how, and where.

We just thank you for our freedom today. Bless us on this Thanksgiving Day, we pray, and we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen. Have a great day today. Enjoy your