Welcome back to our study of
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the book of Daniel.
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We are in Chapter 3 James.
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As we have been looking at this
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Chapter we've seen that
Nebuchadnezzar has defied the
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dream that God gave him in
Chapter 2 and now he is seeking
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to implement,
through force and coercion,
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his own system of worship.
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All the people are governed
by fear and yielding even,
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obviously many of
the captives from Israel.
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Obviously bowing as well
and then we have this remnant
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left standing,
Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego.
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They will not bow and now
we have this incredible scene.
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These three young men are
defying the monarch of Babylon.
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The story picks up there.
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Of course they've been reported.
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There is no way that you can
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stand among the multitudes,
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probably
thousands maybe even more.
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Tens of thousands of the
leaders and officials of this
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world wide empire,
and not be noticed.
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I don't know, they may
have been standing individually,
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they may have come from
different provinces and may not
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have gotten
together in the crowd.
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One may have been over
here, and one may have been over
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here, and what may have
been over here, which makes
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it more interesting.
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We don't always, in our
witness for God, we don't always
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necessarily stand together.
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We may not have another person
by our side, but eventually
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they are all brought
together, if that is the case.
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They are all brought together
and they end up before the
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King, now the King
is really not happy.
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It says in verse 13 that
Nebuchadnezzar "in his rage"
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"and fury commands to
bring Shadrach, Meshach,"
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"and Abednego" and a bring
these men in before the king.
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And I believe there's two
reasons why the King isn't
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happy, one is
because he's been defied.
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He's the king, he's the
monarch you don't defy me.
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I think number two is
because, Nebuchadnezzar made the
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image all gold
because he was afraid.
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He was afraid of the future.
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The image of gold, the
head, stopping right here.
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Then to go to the
silver, he doesn't want that.
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He doesn't want that and
so he makes this image of
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solid Gold because
he wants to somehow
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make certain his future.
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He's afraid and the people
bow because they are afraid,
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because they know if
they don't bow they will die.
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Yet here are three
young men who aren't afraid.
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They are not afraid at all,
in fact they go on to explain
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to the King that they won't
worship the image that he set
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up they explain in
verse 16 through 18.
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They say with a very
strong confidence that our God,
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whom we serve is able to
deliver us, even if you throw
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us in the fiery furnace He
is able to preserve our lives.
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Then they say in verse
18, "but even if not," even if
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not, if we are cast into
the fiery furnace and God
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doesn't preserve us, this
is about something more than
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preserving our lives.
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"Let it be known to you,
O king that we do not serve"
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"your gods, nor will we
bow down and worship the gold
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image which you have set up. "
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Whether God preserves us
are not, we are not bowing.
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This goes back to Chapter
1 and verse 8 where Daniel
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purposed in his heart
to maintain his integrity
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before the Lord.
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It is of no consequence to
them whether they live or die.
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What is of consequence to
them, is that they continue
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in integrity to
serve God faithfully.
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It is vital that
Nebuchadnezzar sees this,
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this heart experience.
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In fact, it isn't about them
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anymore, it is about God.
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Another reason why is not
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only because you see them
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standing and revealing
something that Nebuchadnezzar
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doesn't have.
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He is afraid and they are not.
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I think part of his outrage
is that he is afraid and they
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are not, they had
something he does not have.
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Well God has led Nebuchadnezzar
to an intellectual assent
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to the truth so far
in Chapters 1 and 2.
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He has come to recognize
that this God that Daniel and
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his three friends serve,
is a God above all other gods.
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He is the most high God.
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Intellectually he is converted
but now we see in Chapter 3
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that God is giving
Nebuchadnezzar a living witness.
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A living demonstration of
what it really looks like to
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serve and worship the
one and only true God.
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These three guys, these three
young man, Meshach, Shadrach
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and Abednego, they are
testifying to Nebuchadnezzar.
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God is using them to get
deeper into his heart and to
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lead Nebuchadnezzar
to a deeper conversion.
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So he is thinking in
his mind, could it be true?
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Could there be people in
my kingdom who are fearless?
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I would love to
have that experience.
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I'm going to test
them, let me test them now.
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He says in verse 15, I'm going
to give you a second chance.
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Maybe you didn't hear me right.
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"If you be ready at the
time you hear the sound of the"
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"music," goes
through all the instruments.
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"And you fall down and worship
the image which I had made"
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"well", but if
you do not worship"
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Make sure you understand this!
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"If you do not worship, you
will be cast that same hour"
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"into the midst of a
burning fiery furnace. "
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And here is, okay?
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The dumbest question in
the Bible, are you ready?
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"And who is that God
that shall deliver you"
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"out of my hands?"
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Nebuchadnezzar should know
better, he should know better!
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At this point Nebuchadnezzar
should know the God who
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is able to deliver.
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God has communicated with him.
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God has revealed to him his
dream and the interpretation
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of his dream back in Chapter 2.
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He has seen a faint outline
of the power of this God.
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He is feeling a rather
inflated sense of himself here.
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Plus he doesn't know God.
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No he doesn't.
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Intellectually he does.
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He knows about God,
but who is this God?
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Think Ty, just think, can
you think of this question being
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asked not so much from the
negative, as it might be from
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the positive, in other
words Nebuchadnezzar is saying
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they have
something I don't have.
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I would love to be
fearless like they are.
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I can't believe it, it
upsets me that they got it.
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Who is this God? Who is
this God that can deliver you?
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In other words Nebuchadnezzar,
people just generally
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want to be introduced
to a God that can take away
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all of our fear.
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It is as if, yes Nebuchadnezzar
is arrogant, yes he wants
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them to bow down and worship
but, somewhere in the back
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of his mind, he is doing
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in an experiment here.
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He has already seen Daniel's
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God in action one time before.
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Now he is asking the
question, is your God able to
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deliver you from me, from
my power of the fiery furnace?
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He is about to get the
answer to his question.
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We are all doing
an experienced Ty.
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We are all looking for that God.
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Every one of us is looking for
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that God and we are looking for
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the removal of fear from our
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lives in from our hearts.
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This Chapter
reveals who that God is.
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The problem is that
humanity gets in the way of
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Nebuchadnezzar and of us.
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Humanity gets in the way
and so what happens here,
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is when he sees these
young men defy him again,
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really revealing this
fearlessness that Nebuchadnezzar
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really needs so badly.
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When he sees them defy
him again he gets very upset.
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It says in verse 19, "then
Nebuchadnezzar was full of"
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"fury and the form of his
visage was changed against"
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"Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, therefore he spake,"
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"and commanded that they
should heat the furnace seven"
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"times hotter than
needs to be heated. "
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Yeah and then the command
is given, throw them into the
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fiery furnace, the mighty
men are called in verse 20.
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To take these young
men and hurl them into this
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extremely hot fiery
furnace and it is amazing what
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unfolds at this point.
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Not just the mighty
men, in verse 20, "the most"
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"mighty men. "
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Now the reason why this
is significant is because you
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have the strongest, the
biggest, baddest men in the
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kingdom of Babylon.
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These are the guys that
have conquered nations and they
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come up to that furnace
and they throw Shadrach,
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Meshach, and Abednego into
the flames of that furnace,
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and then what happens to them?
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Well, it is so hot that
they are consumed themselves
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and died because of the
heat of the flames that they
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came too close to
and throwing them in.
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You know the greatest
trials in this life are going
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to destroy us, the greatest
trials we face are going
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to consume us.
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There is too much
heat, there is too much evil,
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there is too much pain in
this world for us to survive.
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It doesn't matter how
strong or mighty we are,
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there is no way we can
survive unless we are willing to
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go into the furnace with Jesus.
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And that is why we want
to go all the way with Jesus.
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That is a powerful
lesson that we see here as these
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three young men are
thrown into this furnace.
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What an incredible
story as it unfolds.
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Nebuchadnezzar watches with
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astonishment as suddenly he
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recognizes that these men are
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walking around in the fiery
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furnace, but then as he looks
he notices, he does a quick
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headcount here, and not
only does he see three living
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individuals in the flames
of fire, but he sees a fourth
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individual and he says
in verse 25, "it looks to me
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like the son of God. "
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Now there you go Ty,
you mentioned earlier that
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Nebuchadnezzar
knew who this was.
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He knew who God was, yet he
did, but he needed the witness.
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He needed to see God lived
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out in the lives
of God's followers.
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There are people out there
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friends, there are people out
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there are witnessing
and sharing believers.
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Maybe you are a person who
is looking for God and you have
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heard all these
truths of the Bible.
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You have gone to the seminars
and have understood these
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prophecies, but you have
not seen the people of God.
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What I mean is, the
witness of the Spirit of God,
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but fearlessness of God,
is not seen in the lives of
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Church people, believers
who profess to follow God.
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That is what Nebuchadnezzar
he's seeing right here.
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He seen three people who
were bound thrown into the
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furnace, and now he sees
them free walking with Jesus.
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What that means is this,
there are people on this earth
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were so serious about
their relationship with God that
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no matter what trial comes
their way, no matter how hot
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the furnace gets, or
how difficult life gets,
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they are free
because Jesus is with them.
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Then we see here that is
Nebuchadnezzar realizes what's
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taking place, I mean
just previously he is feeling
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powerful, he is feeling
arrogant, and feeling like he
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can just do
anything he wants to do.
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You are certainly going to obey
me or I'm going to kill you.
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All of a sudden this king
goes through a humbling, and
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he realizes he has
no power over these men.
00:10:35.77\00:10:38.10
There is a God who has
power above and beyond his.
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Who has charge of the situation.
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Nebuchadnezzar, it
dawns on him James,
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that he is witnessing, not
only the incredible integrity
00:10:48.45\00:10:54.38
of these young men, but he
is witnessing that their God is
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a God who is with
them in their trials.
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With them in their suffering,
this is certainly a faint
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Old Testament outline, a
silhouette of what we see
00:11:08.32\00:11:11.80
taking place in such
a beautiful form in the
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incarnation and
cross of Jesus Christ.
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When we are in the fire of
affliction, which we all are
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as human beings, it is
evident in Scripture that Jesus
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does not abandon us,
God does not abandon us.
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He is with us in our
trials, in our struggles.
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He is literally with us
taking us a step further.
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He has come near to us in
the sin problem as a whole.
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Has identified with the
human race, has become one of us
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and went to the cross to bear
the totality of all the weight
00:11:45.56\00:11:50.19
of sin on our behalf.
00:11:50.22\00:11:51.91
And let's face it Ty,
what a contrast to the idea
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if you become a Christian
and accept Christ that all your
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problems are going to go away.
00:11:56.41\00:11:57.50
That is just not the reality
and millions of people on
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this planet know that.
00:12:00.94\00:12:02.08
Billions of people on this
planet know that their life is
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not changed necessarily
because they turned to God
00:12:06.97\00:12:11.00
and accept Him.
00:12:11.04\00:12:12.01
They do not need a God who
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says if you turned to me I
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will rain down blessings
00:12:15.19\00:12:16.94
from heaven and everything
00:12:16.97\00:12:18.66
economically is going to be
fine and all of your problems
00:12:18.69\00:12:21.37
are going to be fixed.
00:12:21.41\00:12:22.38
They need a God who is going
to be with them through the
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trials and
through the difficulties.
00:12:24.97\00:12:26.41
He is going to give them
the peace that brings them above
00:12:26.44\00:12:29.67
that storm and allows them
to have in their hearts, and
00:12:29.71\00:12:33.12
their lives, the joy that
surpasses all the difficulties
00:12:33.16\00:12:36.54
and trials that we face.
00:12:36.58\00:12:37.83
In closing Chapter 3,
Nebuchadnezzar has brought
00:12:37.87\00:12:41.30
exactly to the place he was
brought to in Chapter 2 where
00:12:41.34\00:12:44.80
he is just praising God, but
now I think he's praising God
00:12:44.84\00:12:48.27
just a few steps forward
from where he was before.
00:12:48.30\00:12:52.77
Again God is working out
the radical conversion of
00:12:52.80\00:12:56.11
Nebuchadnezzar, he is
reaching into his heart.
00:12:56.15\00:12:59.39
He is seeking to win him
to Himself and here he again
00:12:59.42\00:13:03.74
is brought to his knees
before the most high God to
00:13:03.78\00:13:08.06
praise and worship Him.
00:13:08.10\00:13:09.53
He takes one more step
friends, one more step.
00:13:09.57\00:13:11.81
That is what this is all
about, taking one more step to
00:13:11.85\00:13:15.18
understand who God is, how
He loves you, and what He wants
00:13:15.21\00:13:18.50
to do in your life.
00:13:18.54\00:13:19.83