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Now I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel, it wasn't their military size, it wasn't the type of people they were going to be.
We're going to be in Daniel chapter 2 this morning, Daniel chapter 2 and 3.
Daniel chapter 2 and 3 with just a slight deviation, at least in scripture, to Revelation chapter 13.
Now, I'm going to do in the introduction all of chapter 2.
I'm going to talk about all of chapter 2 because, as we all know in proper biblical hermeneutics, you can't understand chapter 3 in totality until you have both 1 and 2.
And so in Daniel chapter 2, remember, we're in about 603 B .C.
The Assyrians have been defeated by the Babylonians. And for all you keyboard warriors out there, simply look up Wikipedia.
I'm talking about the same history in your history books. It's the same history in the Word of God. You know why?
Because it's history. Babylon has come in. They defeated at 605.
They defeated an alliance between the Assyrians and the Egyptians under the pharaoh
Necho. On the way back from chasing the Egyptians back to their homeland,
King Nebuchadnezzar stopped off in Jerusalem and put Judah under its thumb as well.
They took away with them, at that point, they took away with them several of the most elite of the noble families of the
Jews. Four of those guys were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
They're Babylonian names. And in chapter 3, God's Word continues to use those names, so why?
They took them away and they educated them to try to make their culture diminish to accept the
Babylonian culture. The idea was that if you took the noble families of the peoples you conquered, inundated them with the culture of Babylon, there would be a great bridge between the
Babylonian and Jewish empire. Of course, we read last week where they were told, you have to eat this, eat this, eat this.
And Daniel said, I tell you what, give us that food which will not defile our bodies and we can trust in the
Lord and God will make us healthier than whatever you people are eating. And it was true.
In Daniel chapter 2, if you read, Nebuchadnezzar, it's actually Nebuchadnezzar II, and I gave a brief bio of him on your paper.
Nebuchadnezzar II had a dream. And in this dream he saw a huge statue.
The head was made of gold, the body and the chest were made of bronze, and so on and so forth on down.
I'm not getting into all that right now. We're going to do that in October. But basically,
Nebuchadnezzar was told, that head of gold is you. The Medes and the
Persians will come after you. And then after them, Greece. And after Greece, Rome. And then after Rome, there will be another set of nations that will rise up.
But Iraq, not hewn by human hands, will come out of the sky and strike that.
And all of those kingdoms will fall, but that one kingdom will live forever.
And, of course, that being Jesus Christ. Now, understanding that, I want you to look at a couple of things.
Ladies and gentlemen, we in this world today, we in this world yesterday, and we in this world tomorrow, have a choice to make, we have a faith to uphold, and we have a hope to show.
And I'm going to look at each three of those things this morning, and how they relate, not just to the past and the present, but also to the future as well.
So in Daniel 3, verse 1, it says this, King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was 60 cubits and breadth 6 cubits.
He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Now, I want you to understand how much
I love Carrie Stanley. I want you to understand that. I call her Grady now.
I used to call her Blondie, but after 17 years, her hair has turned gray. That's because of you people, not me.
But we have honored Carrie, and we're going to. We're going to honor her for all of her sacrifice.
But I promise you this, I am never going to build a statue of Carrie and put it out in the parking lot and have everyone go out there and bow down and worship it.
That would be just a little weird, wouldn't it? Me, not so much, but Grady, that would definitely be weird.
I want you to understand the megalomaniac that Nebuchadnezzar was. He made a statue of himself, and this is what he said.
Everyone's going to gather together. We're going to dedicate this statue, and every time we play this song, everyone's going to bow down and worship that statue.
Now, I want you to know that he made that statue completely out of gold. Now, God had just told him in a dream, the head of the image you saw was
Babylon, but that's going to give way to something else. Nebuchadnezzar said, oh yeah,
God, watch this. I'm going to make a statue of me, and that statue is going to be all of gold, and it's never going to quit.
Ladies and gentlemen, the first thing I want you to focus on today is this. In your choice to follow
God, are you following things that are temporary, or are you following things that are eternal?
You have to understand, and I know in our lives, we have been inundated with this idea that we actually own things.
Guys, you don't own your house. You say, oh, but it's paid off. Do you pay taxes?
Yeah. You written it. You written it. Because if you don't pay them taxes, what happens?
They don't take it. You don't own it. You don't own your car. You don't own anything.
Everything belongs to the power of this world. The only thing you truly have is that personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and the only thing you own is your choice to make on whom you're going to serve.
Nebuchadnezzar sat there and said, God, you said my kingdom's going to fall. Watch this.
Well, I want you just to turn with me for a quick moment to Revelation chapter 13.
Revelation chapter 13, specifically verses 11 through 17.
Now, we say those are things of the past. That's stupid. That's foolish.
No one would ever do that again. Yeah? Well, we create idols all the time.
But I'm telling you, Nebuchadnezzar's idol is going to have a 2 .0 one day.
Watch this. Revelation chapter 13, verses 11 through 17.
Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon.
It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the beast, whose mortal wound was healed.
It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to the earth in front of people.
And by the signs it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image of the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.
And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast might even speak and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.
Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has their mark, and that is the name of the beast or the number of his name.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you, this one might talk, this one might have special effects, but it's going to be the same thing that Satan has been trying to do since the
Garden of Eden. It's going to twist the Word of God in your life and cause you to take your eyes off of Christ and put something made of hands in this world to worship.
You have a choice to make this morning, and I ask you, identify those things in your life which you're worshiping, whether it be your job, your home, your spouse, whether it be your children, your grandchildren, that one's not so bad, but your other one.
Are you worshiping something other than Christ? Understand, there's going to be a great pressure, and there is pressure right now, but there's going to be a greater pressure to conform to the image of the beast.
Look with me back in Daniel 4. It says this. Daniel 3, verse 4.
It says this, And the herald proclaimed aloud, You are commanded, O peoples,
O nations, O languages. Do you know that the world will be more united under Satan than it will ever be under Christ?
In this dispensation, the world will come together under evil quicker than it will righteousness.
If you don't believe me, drive past a wreck on the interstate. Everybody's looking, but very few are running to help.
If you see in this world today, the world loves drama and sin and contention and trials and tribulations.
Do you know that the news channels, the ratings go up? You know when? When there's a war, or there's some sort of disaster.
With every nation, language, and people, because of the total depravity of our hearts, not the lack of our church attendance, the total depravity of our hearts loves chaos and sin more than they love righteousness.
If you're going to make a choice to stand for God, you will be the minority.
I hear so many people talking about minorities today. I always love it when they say, well, pastor, you don't understand what it is to be a minority.
I live in Memphis, Tennessee. Ain't no one like me running around. Do you know how many bald, redneck pastors there are?
Very few. I am a minority. But see, as part of the world strategy, church, listen to me.
To divide us by stupid skin color and denominations rather than the only two eternal divisions that exist,
God's people and those who are against him. That's the only two classes there are.
But you eat the porridge and the filth the world gives you. Your identity, you've made a choice to have an identity based upon hurt, pain, tragedy, skin color, and everything else rather than the freedom that is yours in Christ Jesus.
What are you going to do? Are you going to make a choice? If you do understand this, you will be in the minority.
Verse 5. There's an emotional enticement to walk away from God.
Watch this. That when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, dragon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.
When I coach my fighters, one of the things I try to get them to understand is that the
Rocky Balboa music, that little goose -pumpy feel that when the good guy has been beaten and that great protagonist is on the last rope, all of a sudden, and he's like, flexes out, and he's like Van Dammen, you know, and he beats up 47 people, saves the damsel in distress, and goes away.
There ain't no music, guys. There ain't no music. In fact, I'll be honest with you.
When you're in the cage, you hear everything and absolutely nothing, especially when your coach is yelling at you from the corner and y 'all keep doing stupid things.
You hear everything and you hear nothing. Guys, have y 'all ever been to a concert?
How many of y 'all went to the Monsters of Rock concert back in the 80s? Anybody? One. Sorry, I forgot.
Wrong church. Y 'all weren't even born in the 80s. Back in my day, they had this thing called
Monsters of Rock concert. They had all these groups come, went to the Liberty Bowl. You remember the fire trucks?
It was so stinking hot. People were passing out, and they were spraying everybody down with the fire hose.
It was awesome. Awesome. It was awesome. It was killer music, man.
Awesome. You know what brought us together?
The music. Guys, listen to me for a second. Music is powerful.
Do you know what station I listen to? Every day. 600 AM.
Now, this is me. This is not my standard I'm trying to give you.
I'm telling you where my weakness is, okay? If I listen to the old music
I used to listen to, I want to fight. I'm not talking about, oh, stop it.
I'm talking about I want to rip your sternum apart, reach in, grab your heart while it's still beating, and say, look,
Mom, what I did. That's what goes through my head. Okay? Yeah. Yeah.
Go back 35 years ago. It's even a bigger wow. Listen to me. Some Christian music does that to me.
Now, wait a minute. You're saying, oh, my God, he's on Christian music. I'm not talking about the,
I'm talking about that staccato, that beat. Y 'all know what I'm at? I don't know if anybody else's way, maybe
I need to go get it in therapy, but it does that to me, right? I have to be careful.
Guys, understand that when the world calls you, it's not calling you to a redheaded, pitchfork -tailed, dragon, big, mean, scary, omen -looking, pea -soup -puking devil.
It's going to call you as the finest chick you ever saw. It's going to call you by an addiction you can't break on your own.
It's going to call you by the insecurities you're trying to fill, and it's going to keep her longer than you wanted to stay, cost you more than you wanted to pay, and destroy you more than you thought it could.
Mark my words. Guys, the choice you have to make is sometimes to do the things you don't want to do so you can do the things you enjoy doing.
And part of that thing is this. You're never going to be able to enjoy life as a child of God if you keep putting
God second. It's never going to happen. It's never going to happen. Third thing.
Oh, this one's scary. Chapter 3, verse 6. The choice is going to be to stand up also against government enforcements.
And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the burning, fiery furnace.
Now, I'm not saying that the state of Tennessee has a furnace somewhere, and if you showed up on church on a
Sunday morning, they're going to throw you in it. That's absolutely ridiculous. Today, today, oh, pastor, you're exaggerating.
Well, see, here's the problem with your argument. I've got 5 ,000 years of recorded human history on my side.
You've got your opinion. 5 ,000 years of recorded facts where at hundreds of different points in human history,
Christians were singled out to be tortured to death and killed for their faith, sometimes by the church.
I always find that ironic, or what people call the church. Guys, I don't believe,
I believe the rapture can happen today, but I do not believe the tribulation is fixing to start.
Now, I'm going to give you a prophetic word today, and I'm using that cheek and tongue. But here's when you know things are going to get bad.
When the government removes the tax -exempt status from churches, you better buckle up.
And kids, it's a coming, and it's a coming quickly.
Most of you in this room will see it happen. People, the days of 1980s country kitchen
Christians are over. The days of the megachurch are coming to a close.
Because you want to see megachurches, you want to see churches get pure, I'm going to tell you how they get pure.
They don't get pure by adding numbers. You know how they're going to get pure?
Like they've done every time in history. Persecution shows up, the church purifies and goes out.
It's happened every single time. Ladies and gentlemen, the choice you're going to have to make sometimes is this.
No disrespect, but I must choose to obey God rather than man.
That's a scary thing to say. Some of you guys in here want to use this as a red dawn moment with your wife.
Well, honey, the antichrist and the beast are showing up. I've got to have the newest
AR -15 with 20 ,000 rounds of ammo in my ghillie suit so I can protect the family.
Come here, man. You want to protect your family? Quit spending your time and money with guns and put it on your knees.
You submit your heart to Christ, let Him take care of everything else, man. Now, I'm not saying don't protect your home, okay?
I have a BB gun myself at home, okay? It's a Red Rider pump action, man.
I ain't never put my eye out. But I'm telling you this. Well, yeah, that too.
But listen to me. Listen to me. Spend time sharpening the sword of the
Word of God in your heart. Last thing on this part. Verse 8.
This is a hard one. Therefore at that time certain
Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever.
Now, let me put this to you in a modern colloquialism. They saw that Shadrach, Meshach, and Adam was not going to bow down to that image.
Ain't going to do it. So what did they do? O Nebuchadnezzar!
They're not doing it. Like seven -year -old little town -tale girls. Have you ever noticed that seven and eight -year -old girls are like informers?
Never let a seven or eight -year -old girl join the mafia. They will tell everything right away. But that's what these guys did.
And here's what they did it for. They didn't do it because they just hated the
Jews. They loved the sin that was causing the Jews grief. You see, there is an enemy.
A church. Look right here. There is an enemy out there trying to destroy
God's people. He can't destroy God. He knows from the Word of God he's never going to destroy
God's Word. His Word is tried like silver and fine and will last forever. So the only thing he can do is try to hurt
God's children. And so they come and they maliciously attack. And notice what they say.
O King, live forever. Well, that ain't going to happen. But I'll tell you a lie to get you to like me.
And I will sell out anybody else to get you to like me.
Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever sold out your brother and sister in Christ? Oh no,
I've never called the government. I ain't talking about that. I ain't talking about that. You ready?
We really need to pray. Guys, hold on.
Just between me and you. Now you have to picture we're in the parking lot. Okay. Or on the text phone.
Hey, just between me and you. We need to pray for Robert Bonds. We do.
I'm not gossiping. I'm just going to share what I know that is derogatory about him so that we can now in sin lift him up to God.
It's called gossip. And you're selling out your brother and sister in Christ.
You want to pray for Robert? Here's an idea. Go to Robert and say, Hey brother,
I notice you're struggling with this. Or I feel that you're. Let me pray for you. Let me hold you accountable.
Let me lift you up. Let me build you up instead of tearing you down. That's how you fight.
And it's a choice to make. Oh, I got something juicy. I got something good.
I'm going to keep it in my back pocket because I'm not going to destroy the reputation of a brother and sister in Christ to build myself.
That's the choice you have to make sometimes. Guys, you have a choice to make.
Now listen. You also have a faith. You have to have a faith.
I want you to listen. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they went and told on the king. To his credit,
Nebuchadnezzar, to his credit, didn't just take their word for it because he knows who the tattletales are.
Y 'all know who the punks are. You know how they say, Hey Bob. Oh my gosh, now what?
Right? They come up to you and Nebuchadnezzar, to his credit, said,
Bring the boys in. And he said, I want to be crystal clear about this.
I'm going to set up that image. The harps are going to play and you're going to bow down and you're going to worship.
Now you say, Well Pastor, this is still a choice. Yeah, but this is different. Because without the empowerment of the faith of God Almighty, you will never make that choice.
It's going to take a faith. And let me demonstrate what that faith is. Are you ready? Watch verse 12.
It says this. I'm sorry, verse 16 -18. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king,
Oh 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. But if not, be it known to you,
O king, that we will not serve your God nor worship the golden image you have set up.
You see, they had a settled faith. It wasn't just a faith to walk down an aisle or to pray a prayer in private.
They had hid the word of God in their heart that they might not sin against Him. And the faith was settled.
It was not watching and coming and going like the tide of the ocean. It was a rock, a granite fortress that no matter what the world crashed against it, it would not stand.
Do you have that kind of settled faith? Do you have the faith that no matter what, even if it cost your life, you will not doubt
God's power? And notice that settled faith. It says God is absolutely sovereign, but His sovereignty is not measured on whether I live or die because God is sovereign and apart from any effects of whatever causality there is.
He had contempt for God. Now I want y 'all to notice this. They had contempt for Him.
Let me put it to you in 1980s vernacular. Man, I ain't studying you. Well, we're going to burn you up.
Man, you go for it, brother. Feel froggy, jump. Ain't nothing between me and you but space and opportunity, son.
You do what you got to do. But we ain't going to bow down to your image.
Well, pastor, that's not very kind. And what would Jesus do? I ain't got to know what Jesus did because in a few verses,
He shows up. But we'll get to that in just a second. You have to understand.
I want to ask you a question. Is your faith settled? And I also want to ask you this. Do you have an if -not clause in your faith?
Dear Lord, I have a friend. He's really a friend of a friend.
And he just got some bad news about the cancer word. God, I'm sick of cancer.
Sick of it. I can still see Stephanie Hanscom sitting right there. Sick of it.
Father, heal him. Notice what they said.
They said, we're not going to do it. You throw us in the furnace. God's going to deliver us. You know what that means?
It doesn't matter what happens to our bodies because if you kill me, I'm just going home.
This is not my world. It is temporary. I'm passing through. My faith is an if -not faith.
It doesn't matter if not this happens or what if this happens because I know
God has a plan for me. It's a plan of good, not of evil all the days of my life including the last one when
I die. I have a guy who obsessed with dying. And I tell him every week he comes into my office, you are going to die.
Every week. That's my pastoral counseling doing. You're going to croak.
You're going to kick over. You're going to go feet and legs up. You're going to go stiff.
You're going to smell. You're going to die. But see, this is what our problem is.
We're so wrapped up in the fear of what if we need to get back to if not.
It doesn't matter. I know that I'm going to die. Well, the world can't. Well, if it can't, that's all right.
If not, you can't fix me. If not, you can't give me medicine. If not, it doesn't matter.
I'm still going to be healed. Because when I leave this world and go to heaven, there's going to be no more tears.
No more cancer. No more of that garbage. I will hear, well done now, good and faithful servant.
And I will enter into the rest of the Lord. Do you have that kind of faith?
Well, yeah. I mean, I prayed to receive Jesus Christ in my heart as my ward and savior.
I got the WWJD bracelet. I go to church two or three times a month.
That's why your faith is shaken. Because it's built on things built out of man's hand rather than the eternal word of God that should be in your hearts.
Where you at? What kind of faith you got? Last thing.
You got choice. You got faith. But church, praise
God, we got to hope. Mm, mm, mm, mm. I said, we ain't doing it.
Abba Genizer said, hey, gather them up, boys. A couple of thick -necked guys named
Gunter and Luigi grabbed them up, tied them up, put a sack over their head, took them up and kicked them into the furnace.
Down they went. Down they went. Nebuchadnezzar sitting there, little gold chair, looking at the egg.
This ain't the first execution that day. This ain't the first one. Because the fire had to be heated up seven times hotter.
That means it was already hot. That means he had already been cooking more french fries. Throwing people in.
All of a sudden, old Nebby goes, boys, come here.
Didn't we throw three cats in there? Yeah. Well, how come
I see four and the fourth one looks like the son of the gods? Mm, mm.
You know what our hope is? Three things. First of all, our hope is this.
It's freedom. I ain't talking about red, white, and blue freedom. I'm talking about red freedom.
I'm talking about the freedom of Jesus Christ that no matter what happens, there is nothing this world can do.
That can take away my rights. That can oppress me. That can harm me.
That can hurt me. Ah, but that Jesus, that Jesus hope that no matter what happens, the worst thing you can come up with for my life, kill my wife, my children, my grandchildren, the worst thing you can dream up,
I'm gonna die and I'm gonna go home and be with them forever. What, punk, can you do to me?
I got freedom. Notice they went in there bound and everything the world put on them was burned away in the presence of Jesus Christ.
They went in bound, but they were free no matter what. How much freedom do you have in the hope that you have for Christ Jesus?
Look at this. Verse 27. And the satraps, the prefects, the governor, and all the king's councils gathered together and saw that the fire had not any power over the bodies of those men.
The hair of their heads were not even singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and they didn't even smell like smoke.
You couldn't even do that. We go to the hunting club and one of the greatest things about hunting,
I'm 55 years old, if I don't ever shoot a deer again, I don't care. But you know what I love? Artie knows.
Tell me, Artie. Artie. Yep, that's it.
Love it. Love it. But you can always tell when
I've done that. Because I'll come home and Gwen will go, oh my
God, take those clothes outside and don't bring them in my house because they smell like smoke.
I ain't even been in the fire. I've just been around it and I reek like smoke. These three guys had been in the middle of it and they didn't even smell like it.
Pastor, will you come here for a second? Guys, I want to just for a second give you a little demonstration of hope.
The Word of God tells us in two different doctrines, both sanctification and justification, that our hope doesn't have to be in our prayers.
Our hope doesn't have to be in our perfection. Our hope is not in our church attendance or money that we give or any of that other garbage.
Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
It says right here that they didn't even stink. The Word of God tells us in Ephesians 1 that we are to be holy and blameless.
That before the foundation of the world, before you were born, God called you to be holy and blameless.
And then He did something even more beautiful. He didn't just call you, He chose you.
You're mine. Now, here's how before I understood the power and doctrine of grace, before I understood that, here's how
I always thought. Every Sunday, I had to be fresh and pressed and clean and perfect.
And as soon... Now, y 'all people are a lot better Christians than I am, okay? I didn't grow up in church, alright?
So, y 'all people, y 'all like real Christians. I'm just up here pretending, right? That's how
I felt all the time. And I'm sure none of you feel like that. You know?
I wouldn't pray for like months at a time. And I would feel guilty about it.
And I'm like, oh, I suck. God doesn't love me no more. I'm a big, fat, stupid loser.
Can at least one person say they felt like this? I won't feel alone. Okay, one. Okay, good.
Now, wait a minute. This is why I was a pastor. Pastor.
And I constantly lived with this understanding. I constantly lived with that the effects of sin on my life stained me.
It soaked me. It was constantly hanging on me.
And everywhere I go, I was really good at looking at you going, oh, man, how you doing, pastor?
Oh, I'm doing great, man. Blessed in Jesus. Or for my Pentecostal friends, highly faithful.
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. But I was constantly carrying that around on my soul.
Do you know what justification is? Do you know what it is not to even have the smell of sin on you?
It sits there and says, holy and blameless. Now, this is a loaf of bread that I pulled out of the cabinet in the kitchen that I'm sure the cooking girls bought.
Mm -hmm. And I'm gonna be gentle, okay? But I want you to hold this up, pastor.
Now, watch. Little loaf of bread. You see, I'm not sinless, but, see,
I am blameless. You see, while this, the flesh, soaks up my sin.
You see, I have a covering of the blood of Jesus Christ over my life. And even though I still get stained with sin in my head, the reality of my soul is absolutely clean because I have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, if anyone, if anyone knows Christ, he is a new creature.
All things that pass away, behold, all have become new. There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.
Have you been justified? Do you have the hope I'm talking about? Or do you have wishful thinking based upon a prayer at VBS that you're not gonna go to hell?
Remember this, people. God's people are not persecuted because they worship
Jesus. God's people are persecuted because they won't worship the world. Let me ask you this.
What are you putting your faith in this morning? Are you putting it in a prayer, a church, a denomination, or are you putting it in the justifying power of Jesus' blood?
You say, Pastor, I've tried so many times. I've read, I've raised my hand.
But right now, I want everybody to bow their heads.
Don't really. Close your eyes. And I want you, if you've accepted
Jesus, just to slip your hand, just slip it up. Don't make a big deal out of it. That is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Gospel of Jesus Christ says this. If you deny me before men, I will deny you before the Father. And let me tell you, well,
I don't know how to do that. Let me tell you, if you're really saving the power of the Holy Spirit to split you wide open, you ain't gonna have a problem.
You might stutter a few steps, but you're gonna be like, whoo, something changed.
Something different up in me. The way I thought, feel, the way I reacted then and now, it's different.
You'll be possessed, but only with the power of the Holy Spirit. You are gonna be brand spanking new if you have been holy and blameless.
Even the stench of sin will not stay on you. And then the last thing is this.
I want you to do. Christians, when we make a choice, we exercise our faith, and we show hope, here's what sinners start doing.
Look at verse 28. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, Blessed be the
God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted him and set aside the king's command and yielded up their body rather than serve and worship any god except their own
God. People say Nebuchadnezzar got saved here. No, crackhead. He didn't.
He did not bow his head. Notice what he says. Bless the God of them.
You know what he gave them? He gave them respect instead of giving God repentance. People, and I'm not trying to be mean, and we're about to close up here.
I'm not trying to be mean. I'm not trying to make you feel a certain way because feelings don't save you.
What I'm trying to explain to you is this. Forgiveness never comes except at the cost of repentance.
Do you understand that? You see, the first word out of Jesus' mouth, the first sermon he preached was this.
Repent. Ladies and gentlemen, we have honed in on believed when
God said repent. We've honed in on the word Christian when God called us disciples.
We have honed in on everything and twisted and turned God's word just a little bit.
Funny, that's the exact same strategy Satan had in the Garden of Eden. Where are you today?
Well, pastor, I believe in God. Well, great, so do demons. Well, pastor,
I ask Jesus Christ in my heart. Yeah, that's not in Scripture. Well, pastor, how do
I know I have that faith? There's a little girl named Cassie.
A little girl named Cassie, 17 years old. 17 -year -old. In 1999, she woke up one morning and went to school.
As she was in school, people started shooting. She ran into a room and one of these scumbags whose names
I will never repeat walked in the room and asked her this. Do you believe in God?
She said yes. Boom. Killed her right there.
Just like Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego had to be faithful in the little things before they got faithful in the big things.
Watch what this little girl wrote in her diary. Not too many months before this.
When God does not want me to do something, I definitely know it.
When He wants me to do something, even if it means going outside of my comfort zone,
I know that too. I feel pushed in the direction
I need to go. That's called the Holy Spirit. Some of y 'all laughing because you already know.
You know that feeling. I try to stand up for my faith at school.
It's very discouraging. But it also can be very rewarding. I will die for my
God. I will die for my faith. It is the least
I can do for Christ dying for me. That's choice.
That was faith. And that was hope. Christians, do you have music people you can come do your thing?
Do you have that? Do you have that? Or is the only thing you can resist to is a decision to walk down the aisle 30 years ago?
Has there ever been any matriculation or growth in your life? No? You might want to ask yourself a question.
Am I really saved? Because let me tell you, man makes furnaces that fall apart.
But there is a furnace waiting for those in eternity. It will never die.
It will never quench. And it will never go out. I'm going to ask you to stand. And if you're not sure of where you are with Jesus, if you just need some help, there are pastors and people down front to help you.