[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Calvary Albuquerque. We pursue the God
who is passionately pursuing a lost world. We do this with one another
through worship, by the word, to the world. Lord God, we come before you
right now with expectancy, Lord, with belief that
you want to speak to us, belief that you want to
do something in our midst. God, I pray for
everyone in here, Lord, from different walks
of life, from different jobs, different schools,
different families, Lord. And God, I pray
for those who are experiencing the pressure,
the weight, of life right now. Lord, maybe they're finding
it hard to live for you, finding it hard
to walk with you, finding it difficult to
stand pure and stand strong in a fallen world. Lord, I pray that
you would give them the kind of strength
and the faith that you gave to Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, Lord, that you would fill
them with your Holy Spirit, that you would help us to
be a group of Christians, a group of believers, that
stand for what's right, Lord, that don't go with
the majority, that don't go with the crowd, but
that change and impact our moral climate. In your name, we pray. Amen. Hey, question-- who has ever
experienced peer pressure? Raise your hand if you've
experienced peer pressure. I see people. You guys are looking around. Well, if they raise their
hand, I'll raise my hand. It's happening right now, right? You know, peer pressure
is a serious thing in our culture and
our generation. Have you ever felt the
pressure to go along with the crowd, even when
you knew that it was wrong? Anyone ever felt that before? So we've got some liars here. I'll raise my hand
for peer pressure. But it was good peer
pressure, I promise. One study on peer pressure
found that only 10% of teenagers say they have not been
influenced by peer pressure. That means 90% admit to being
affected by peer pressure. 28% of teenagers agreed that
giving in to peer pressure improved their social standing. That's why we do it, right? Because we feel like it's
going to help us fit in. It's going to help us feel cool. It's going to help
us have friends. 50% of people admitted
to picking on someone only after a friend
picked on that person. Peer pressure is an
incredible thing. Peer pressure will cause you to
do things that you never would, go places you never
should, and say things that you never could. It will turn you into
a different person than the person that you want
to be, if you let it affect you. I have a story of
when I was young and how peer
pressure affected me. I was in junior
high school, and I was on a snowboard
trip with Calvary. And I had a friend
who was a gymnast. Now who in here-- is there
any gymnasts in the house? No. Maybe a few. Man, when I grew
up, I don't know why I had a lot of
friends who were gymnasts. And gymnasts always could
do these crazy things. And I had a buddy named
Derek, who was a gymnast. And he was an OK snowboarder. I felt that I was a better
snowboarder than him. But because he was a gymnast,
he could do a backflip with a snowboard. And I was so jealous
of Derek, that he could do a backflip on the snowboard. And being the person who had
snowboarded for a lot longer than Derek, I felt
like, you know what? If he's doing a backflip,
then I can do a backflip. And so my buddy Derek was
telling me how easy it was. Oh, it's so easy. When you go into the
jump, just lean backwards. Just lean. It's so easy. It's not a La-Z-Boy recliner. Come on. It's a backflip. But he was making
it sound so easy, so I took him up on his
offer of doing a backflip. And I come down the
hill, and I'm cruising. And I've got all the
confidence in the world that I'm going to
accomplish this trick. And I hit the kicker, and
I start leaning backwards. And I really quickly
realized I am not prepared to do a backflip. And I get about 50% of the way,
which, if you're wondering, is just upside down. And I start flailing
like a little girl. And I proceed to finish the
rest of the jump inverted, landing on my head, which
caused the snowboard to kick up and hit me in
the sternum, which gave me the worst pain that I have
ever experienced in my life. And so I got towed down to
the bottom of the ski lift. And the medic at the
bottom of the ski lift was poking me really
hard in my sternum, asking me if that hurt,
which yes, it hurt. I just told you my
snowboard hit it. You don't have to poke it
more to ask me if it hurts. It does. And then he let me go, said
I was going to be fine, just a bruise. After a couple of
weeks, I'd feel better. Well, after a couple of months,
after it continued to hurt, and I realized that I was
getting this bump on my chest, I asked the doctor. I said, hey, can
you feel my chest and see if this is normal? And they asked me if
I had done anything that could have caused me to
break my sternum, to which I replied, yes, three months
ago, I was snowboarding, and my snowboard
hit me in the chest. And the doctor said, well, you
probably broke your sternum. But there's nothing you
can do now unless you want us to re-break it for you. And then we can set it. And that wasn't going to happen. So to this day,
I have a reminder of peer pressure on
my chest in the form of a bump on my sternum. Peer pressure can make
you do stupid things. It can make you do things
that you shouldn't do, and it can leave lasting
reminders on your body. It can leave lasting reminders
on your soul, on your heart, on your moral condition,
that you did something that you shouldn't do,
just because someone else was doing it. The heat of peer
pressure has the ability to turn you into an
entirely different person. I wanted to see what culture
said about peer pressure. So I went on Google today, and
I searched peer pressure songs. And the first song
that I found was a song by a rapper named
Kendrick Lamar, called "The Art of Peer Pressure." And I'm going to share
with you what it says. "Smoking on the finest dope,
drink until I can't no mo. Really, I'm a sober soul, but
I'm with the homies right now. Rush a brother quick,
then laugh about it later. Really I'm a peacemaker, but
I'm with the homies right now. I got the blunt in my mouth. Usually I'm drug free,
but I'm with the homies. I was never a gang banger. I mean, I was never a stranger. Rush your brother quick. Then we laugh about it. That's ironic, because
I've never been violent until I'm with the homies. And Mama used to say, one day,
it's going to burn you out. One day, it's going
to burn you out. One day, it's going
to burn you out. But I'm with the
homies right now." I don't think that there could
be a song that could better describe peer pressure. We do things because
we're with our friends. We do things that we
normally wouldn't do. We do things that
we know are wrong. We do things that we wouldn't
dream about doing by ourselves, but we do it, because we're
with the homies right now. But let me tell you, if we live
life based off of that kind of a mentality, Mama's right. It's going to burn you out. Peer pressure is like a fire. And if you're not prepared for
it, then it will burn you out. You'll give into it
over and over again, and each time, it will burn
you up and spit you out, until eventually, you'll just
be a hardly recognizable charred and scarred version of yourself. Last week, we learned
that the heat of life can either melt you,
or it can make you. And how you respond to
the heat determines how the world will remember you. Well, tonight,
we're going to see that in the heat of the
crowd, you have two choices. You can either rise through
the heat of the crowd, or you can fall in the
midst of the crowd. The heat of pressure can either
build you, or it can break you. The heat of other
people's sin can either strengthen your resolve, or
it can cause you to dissolve. And your response to
the heat of the crowd truly will determine
your legacy. How you respond to the sin
in other people's lives, how you respond to what's
cool and what's hip and what's normal for
your friends to do, what's normal for
your coworkers to do, what's normal for
other couples to do, if you just fit
in with the crowd, it will determine your legacy. And your legacy will be
that you won't have one. It is vital that in
the heat of pressure, in the heat of the crowd,
that we respond and let it strengthen our resolve. You've heard it said
that you can either be a thermostat or a thermometer. That's what this
message is all about. And so if you're going through
a time of intense difficulty in your life right now, if
you're experiencing persecution for your faith, if you have ever
felt that you were all alone, then this message is for you. And here, in Daniel
chapter three, we see one of the most
famous and powerful stories to be found in all of the
Bible, the story of three real heroes of the
faith, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And I want to point out that
the only reason these guys are remembered, the only reason
they are heroes of the faith, is because of a couple of
big decisions that they made. Remember I told you last week
that in life, we really only have a few big decisions
that our response to make the right decision or the wrong
decision really determines how we're going to be remembered? That is the case of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. We don't hear a
great lot about them. We don't hear about a ton
of things that they did. We don't hear about them like
we did David or Joshua, hear them doing great conquests. We remember them for
two things-- number one, for not eating of the king's
delicacies, along with Daniel, and number two, for
refusing to bow down to the golden image
of Nebuchadnezzar. They did two big
things in their life. And because of those two big
things, they left an imprint. They left a legacy. They left a standard by which
we are called to live by. We're given a few defining
moments in our lives that can cause us to either melt
into obscurity or to make it. And this was one of those
big decisions for these guys. I want to point out
that if they wouldn't have made the decision
that they did, they would have been
just like everyone else. They would have been just like
all the other Jewish captives who bowed before the
image of Nebuchadnezzar. The reason they're
remembered is because they went against the crowd. So again, I challenge
you to compare, throughout this
message, your life. And ask yourself, what
are the areas that I need to stand apart from the crowd? What are the areas that I need
to be different than the people around me? We pick up their story after
they, along with their friend Daniel, make a brave
and courageous stand for their conviction. These three Jewish
teenage boys had been uprooted from
family and friends and were taken away as slaves to
the powerful nation of Babylon. They were picked out of
thousands of other people to be personally trained in the
court of the most powerful king in the world, Nebuchadnezzar. They were attending the
Babylonian University, B of U, if you will, and
they were allowed to sit at the king's table
and eat of the finest food in the world. And that's where
they first encounter the heat of the crowd. We're told, in the first
few chapters of Daniel, that they didn't want
to eat of the food, because it went against
their conscience. They took a stand in a
seemingly small area that would help to prepare
them for a far more difficult test, that we're about
to read about here in chapter three. And there's a huge
point here for us before we dive into our text. Do you realize that the little
decisions that you make now can greatly affect your
resolve for the big decisions that you're going to
have to make later on? The fact that Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego made this small decision to not
eat of the king's delicacies strengthen their resolve
to make the decision to not bow down
before the golden idol and risk being thrown
into a fiery furnace. The little decisions
that we make now greatly affect the big decisions
that we're going to make later. You know, I hear
Christians all the time that make a ton of
really bad decisions. And they always say,
well, it doesn't matter, because really, I'll make
the right decision later on. And I think that how
can we expect ourselves to make the right decision
when it counts if we're not making the right decisions
along the way to that decision? Our walk with
Christ is contingent upon us making the little
decisions correctly. You know, I see it
all the time with sin. No one wakes up one morning
and says, hey, you know what? Today I'm going to go
out and get an STD. I've never had sex, but I'm
going to go sleep around today. I'm going to have as
many sexual partners today as I possibly can. No one wakes up one day and
says, hey, you know what? I've never done
drugs, but I'm going to get addicted to heroin today. That doesn't happen. What happens is they make a
series of small decisions, a series of small,
bad decisions, that lead them to a place
where eventually, they're in a situation that they
don't know how they got there. It doesn't start with
injecting yourself with heroin. It starts with going to
a party and being offered a drink, and then another
drink and then another drink; and then a couple months
later, being offered a hit of marijuana, and being
willing to do that; and then a couple months
later, being offered to do a line of cocaine; and
then a couple of months later, being offered something
that, two years ago, you never would have done. A series of bad decisions
lead us to a place where we find
ourselves without hope. No one wakes up
deciding they're going to get pregnant out of wedlock. It's a series of decisions. They break the boundaries that
they had with their boyfriend or girlfriend, that they said,
we're never going to do this. And then they drop that
standard a little bit lower. And then a couple months later,
their boyfriend or girlfriend asks them to do something they
really feel uncomfortable with. And they drop that
standard a little lower. And they find themselves
in a position, after a period of
time, not knowing how they got to the
bottom of the bucket. The little decisions
that you make will form the big decisions
that are going to come your way. If Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego didn't make these small
decisions correctly, they probably wouldn't
have had the resolve to make the big one. If they would have been
willing to just break that small commandment of God
and just have that food and say it wasn't a big deal. It's just some food. It's just some meat. What's the big deal? God's not really going
to get mad about that. It's not like I'm worshipping
an idol or anything. If they were willing to drop
their standard for that, when it came time for them
to bow before the idol, they probably wouldn't have
had the resolve to refuse it. They probably would have
said, what's one more sin? What's one more drop
into the bucket? It's not going to make that
much of a difference now. So I challenge
you, before you're thinking about the big
decisions that are ahead of you, start thinking about
the small decisions that you have before
yourself every single day. And that leads us to Daniel,
chapter three, verse one, as we see this big decision
that they're faced with, Daniel, chapter three,
verse one through 18. "Nebuchadnezzar the king
made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits,
and its width was 6 cubits. He set it up in
the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. And King Nebuchadnezzar
sent word to gather together the
satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors,
the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the
officials of the provinces, to come to the dedication
of the image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. So the satraps, the
administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers,
the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials
of the provinces gathered together for the
dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar
had set up. And they stood before the image
that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then a herald cried aloud,
to you it is commanded, oh peoples, nations, and
languages, that at the time you hear the sound of the horn,
the flute, the harp, the lyre, in symphony with
all kinds of music, you shall fall down and
worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar
has set up. And whoever does not
fall down and worship shall be cast
immediately in the midst of a burning, fiery furnace. So at that time, when all
the people heard the sound of the horn, the flute,
the harp, the lyre, in symphony with all kinds of
music"-- basically worship-- "all the people, nations,
and languages fell down and worshipped the gold image
which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Therefore, at that
time, certain Chaldeans came forward and
accused the Jews. They spoke and said to King
Nebuchadnezzar, oh, King, live forever. You, oh King, have made
a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn,
the flute, the harp, the lyre, the psaltery and symphony,
with all kinds of music, shall fall down and
worship the gold image. And whoever does not
fall down and worship shall be cast in the midst
of a burning, fiery furnace. There are certain
Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the
province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
these men, oh King, have not paid due regard to you. They do not serve your gods
or worship the gold image which you have set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar,
in rage and fury, gave the command to
bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So they brought these
men before the king. And Nebuchadnezzar
spoke, saying to them, is it true, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods
or worship the gold image which I have set up? Now, if you are
ready, at the time you hear the sound of the horn,
the flute, the harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony
with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship
the image which I have made, good. But if you do not
worship, you shall be cast immediately
into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace. And who is the God that will
deliver you from my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king, oh, Nebuchadnezzar,
we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case,
our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from
the burning, fiery furnace. And he will deliver us
from your hand, oh King. But if not, let it be
known to you, oh King, that we do not serve
your gods, nor will we worship the gold image
which you have set up." Man, here in Daniel,
chapter three, we see some incredible
resolve from some men who purposed in their hearts
not to defile themselves. You know, it's interesting. In the last days, we're
told that the antichrist is going to do a very similar
thing to what Nebuchadnezzar did, erecting an image of
himself in the rebuilt temple. II Thessalonians,
chapter two, verse four, says, "who opposes
and exalts himself above all that is called
God or is worshipped. So he is as God, sitting
in the temple of God, showing himself as God." Daniel 11:37 says,
"He will exalt himself and magnify himself
above every God and speak against
the God of gods." I want you to imagine this
affair that Nebuchadnezzar had constructed. This was an elaborate,
huge, enormous event. All the nations
and all the tribes that were made
subject to Babylon were commanded to send a
delegation to the ceremony. And keep in mind that
Babylon, at this time, had conquered much
of the known world. And so the whole world
was casting their eyes upon this event. The capital city
was full of people from all over the empire. It was one of the
greatest days in Babylon. And we're told that the
orchestra was in place, waiting for the signal
to begin playing their musical instruments. It's interesting how many times
the instruments are listed in this chapter, isn't it? They're listed multiple times. And they don't paraphrase it. They go ahead and
list all of them every single time,
to the point that you feel like you just
read that verse, you know, like wait a second. Oh, no, I'm still
in the right verse. Because they keep saying
it over and over again. This shows that music is
a really powerful tool. In the hand of God,
music can be used to turn back demonic powers,
such as in the case of David playing his stringed instrument
when King Saul was tormented by demons. Remember, it was music that made
the walls of Jericho fall down. That is why, as
the church, worship should be something that
is very important to us. Worship has the ability to break
down the walls in your life. Worship has the way of preparing
you for the battle ahead. That's why we named our
worship team, here at Calvary, Battledrums, because every
day that we go into the world, we're going into a battle. We're going into warfare. And just like the armies of old,
who would have drummers, drum lines, that would be
leading them into battle and encouraging them,
strengthening them, worship does that for us. It strengthens us. It encourages us. It prepares us for battle. It prepares us for a war. It's so important that we
don't push out the importance of music within the church. Yet, in the hands of
the devil, worship can also lead many
down the wrong path. In Ezekiel, it's mentioned
that Lucifer, while in heaven, was in charge of the music and
praise of the heavenly host. No wonder the devil has
all the good music, right? Well, he's a musician. He loves music. Aristotle said music has
the power to form character. In Hitler's time, music
was used with great effect to move the hearts and
the will of the people. Think about it. Think about all the mass
shootings in our generation and how often they're
associated with music that promotes violence and hatred. Think about the music
that so many of the youth listen to today that is
just pervasive with sex, with promiscuous affairs,
with doing whatever your heart desires. No wonder so many
people are led astray. No wonder so many people
are doing the things that they are singing. Look at verse eight in
Daniel, chapter three. We see an interesting
thing that will remind us, if you're familiar with
Daniel, the last chapters. It says in verse eight,
"Therefore, at that time, certain Chaldeans came
forward and accused the Jews." Now, why is this interesting? Ironically, it was the correct
interpretation by Daniel, one of Shadrach Meshach,
and Abednego's buddies. It was the correct
interpretation by Daniel of the
king's vision that spared the Chaldeans' lives. It was the prayers of Daniel
and these three Jewish friends that saved them, in the
first two chapters of Daniel, when the king had a vision. He had a dream, and he
called all the Chaldeans. And he asked them to
interpret his dream. And he was ready
to kill them all, until Daniel had
the correct vision. He had the correct
interpretation. And yet, here, these same
guys are ready to betray them. It says in verse eight and
nine, "They spoke and said to King Nebuchadnezzar,
oh king, live forever. You, oh king, have made a
decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn"-- I'm
not going to list them all, the other instruments-- "shall
fall down and worship the gold image, and whoever
does not fall down, shall be cast in the midst of
the burning, fiery furnace. Yet, there are
certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs
of the province of Babylon." So we see that Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, and Daniel, already,
here in chapter three, have been set over the
affairs of Babylon. They're Nebuchadnezzar's
right-hand guys. They're in a place
of leadership, a place of authority, no
doubt because of the decisions they made in
chapter one and two, not defining themselves
with the king's delicacies, being able to interpret the
king's visions and the king's dreams. And while that spared
the Chaldeans' lives, the Chaldeans grew with envy
over Daniel and his buddies, grew with envy, because
of the prominence that their faithfulness
had produced. And here they are
betraying them. How tragic is it when those
we help the most appreciate it the least, when those who
we bend over backwards for turn against us? And yet, how often does it
come back to haunt them? Now, it's easy to say,
yeah, that's right. Someone that I know
needs to hear that. Someone I know needs
to hear that message, because I do a lot for them,
and they betray me time and time again. And yet, isn't that
exactly what so many of us do with Jesus, the person
who's done the most for us, the person who we should
appreciate the most. And yet, it seems like
time and time again, the decisions that we make,
our decisions that hurt him, are decisions that
go against what he wants for our
lives, our decisions that he saved us
from the last time? The person who did
the most for us, the person who we should
appreciate the most, is the person that we so
often turn our back on, is the person that we so
often appreciate the least. Upon hearing about
this insubordination on the part of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, the king flies into a rage. He calls for the three of
these men to come before him. And he does something
that we would expect the king to do for three
of his most prized workers. He gives them a second chance. Look at verse 14. Nebuchadnezzar spoke,
saying to them, is it true, Shadrach,
Meschach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods
or worship the gold image which I have set up? Now, if you are
ready, at the time that you hear the sound
of all those instruments, and you fall down and worship
the image which I have made, good. But if you don't, you're toast. That's the paraphrase
of that verse. But he asked them, in
verse 14, is it true that you won't worship my gods? Is it true that you're not
doing what I told you to do? Is it true, basically,
that you think you're too good to do
what I've asked you to do? This is something
that will happen in the life of every Christian. If it hasn't happened
to you already, it will. You might try to play
it cool at first. But sooner or later, you
will have the heat turned up, and this question
will be asked to you. And it might be
tempting to deny it, because it might be
your boss asking you. But be careful, because
Second Timothy 2:12 says, "If we endure, we
will also reign with him. If we disown him, he
will also disown us. Jesus said whoever
confesses me before men, I will also confess them before
my Father, who is in heaven. But whoever denies
me before men, him I will also deny before my
Father, who is in heaven." Look at how that denial
devastated Simon Peter before the fire. And for what, the opinion of
some girl he had never met? When we are thrown into the
heat of that awkward position, which side will you choose? And that awkward
position can come in the form of any question. Oh, what, you think you're
too good to hang out with us, Christian? Oh, you really believe
what the Bible says? You really believe
those fairy tales? Maybe your college professor
asking you that, you really think the Bible is true? Maybe your family asking
you that question, maybe your boss asking you
to do something that you feel uncomfortable doing. It could mean not getting that
position because of your boss's personal prejudice. When we are thrown into the
heat of that awkward position, which side will you choose? It could be a boyfriend
or a girlfriend, and it could mean
the termination of your relationship. It might be close
friends that you have. But make no mistake
about it, you will be asked this question
in some form or another. It might not even come in
words, are you a Christian? It could be a choice to
do or not do something. Your boss asks you to
do something dishonest. Your boyfriend or
girlfriend asks you to do something that should
only be reserved for marriage. Your friends want you
to do something you don't feel comfortable with. When that decision,
when that choice, comes, what's your response
going to be? I challenge you to
prepare yourself for it. Too many Christians get
blindsided by that question. They're not ready
for that question, and so when that
peer pressure comes, when that temptation comes,
when that person in your life asks you to do
something that you don't feel comfortable with,
they're not prepared for it. They're not ready for it. And so they go into panic mode. And in panic mode,
when they're not thinking about all the
Bible verses they've read, they're not thinking about
all the church services they've been to, in panic
mode, they try to take the path of least
resistance that's going to maintain
that relationship and that friendship. And so they make a
decision that they end up regretting the next day. Prepare yourself
for that decision. Prepare yourself for
that awkward moment when your faith is challenged,
when your faith is tested, when what you believe is
called out on the floor. What will you say? But I want to point
out they had a choice. King Nebuchadnezzar told the
entire land worship my idol, or you're going to be burned. Well, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego didn't worship the idol. So you would think
that they'd be burned. But they're not burned. They're given a choice,
a second chance. Hey, maybe you didn't
hear the loud music. Maybe you had your
earphones in, and you were listening to something else. Maybe you don't like
the style of worship inside our sanctuary, and so you
were waiting out in the foyer until the teaching started. And you didn't hear
the music start. I'm going to give
you a second chance. Bow down and worship the idol. And if you do, good. But if you don't, this
is your last opportunity. They had a choice. Bow or burn. It's easy to look
at it in hindsight and say, man, I'd make the same
decision, just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I wouldn't bow. I would look at the king, and
I'd say, you don't control me. I'm the master of
my own destiny. I control my own fate. I believe in God. He will save me. It's easy to say that. But think about it. Everybody else was doing it. Presumably, the other Jews,
who had the same faith that these guys did, who
believed in the same God that these guys did,
who had been taken captive into Babylon
just like these guys were, they all did it. But they could have done it and
made an excuse, or justified it and say, I'll do it now,
and I'll repent later. God will forgive me. He's a God of mercies. He's a God of forgiveness. If I do it, he'll forgive me. I'm not going to go to
hell because of that. They were in a strange land. They could have said,
hey, when in Rome. By complying, they
could have been spared, and they could have
still served God. They could have justified
it and said, you know, if we're killed, we're not
going to do any good to anybody. So why not live to
serve another day. The end justifies the means. What is your
justification for sin? It's not as bad as
other people's sins. I'm not murdering people. I'm not hurting anybody. I'm just doing what
makes me feel good. I'm just doing
what I want to do. Nobody's getting
harmed by my sin. I'll stop after this
last time that I do it. Then I won't do it again. How easy is it for us
to justify our sin? How easy is it for us to put,
on the throne of our heart, a different God, an idol? That's what sin is. Do you realize that a
good desire can become an idolatrous desire if it
takes the throne of your heart, if it takes the
throne of your life. It's easy for us to think
about the bad things, like, OK, drugs,
sex, and alcohol, we're told those are the
things we shouldn't do. And so as long as we're not
doing one of those, we're OK. But it's easy for a good desires
to become idolatrous desires. Like it's a good desire to
love your husband or your wife. It's a good desire to have. But if that good desire
becomes more important to you than serving God, and it
becomes an idolatrous desire, to where you're willing
to disobey God in order to do something that your
husband or wife is asking you to do, it's an
idolatrous desire. It's a good desire to
work hard and to do well and to succeed in
your workplace. But if that desire becomes an
idolatrous desire, and that becomes the chief
aim of your life, to where all you want
to do is succeed-- it becomes more important
to you to make money than to care and
love your family, it becomes more
important for you to maintain that job than it is
for you to serve and love God-- then that good desire can
become an idolatrous desire. It's easy to look at
a giant, golden image and say, well, I'd
never worship that. But what are we worshipping? What is on the
throne of our hearts? What is controlling our
thoughts on a daily basis? Is it pornography? Is it alcohol? Is it that extramarital affair? Is it the pursuit of
success and money? Is it maintaining
our friendships and our relationships? Or is it God? Is it his word? Is it what he has set before us? God told them to never
bow to another God. And now they are
told bow or burn. This was serious peer pressure. One of the hardest things that
teenagers are facing today is the dilemma of peer pressure. Because of the breakdown of the
family, as a result of divorce, there's no father to talk
to, for many families. And even in homes where
the parents are together, there is a horrible
communication gap between parents and teenagers. And as a result, kids
don't turn to their parents in times of trouble or crisis. They turn to something else. A survey conducted by the
University of Minnesota asked to who or what do you
turn to in times of troubles? And the top responses that
kids said they turned to was music, drugs,
friends, and video games, all before mom or dad. They offered 54
different coping options. And talking with mom was
number 31 that was chosen, and talking to
dad was number 48. I'll do everything else to cope
with what I'm going through before I talk to Mom and Dad. I'll do everything else
to get through the pain and the struggles
in my life before I go to who might be
able to really help me. Peer pressure is the
number one reason given for turning to
drugs, alcohol, and sex. Studies on peer pressure reveal
that during the teen years, the most important area
in the child's life is that of acceptance. Parents, I want
you to hear this, because this is really
important for you in making sure your kids
are trained up in the way that they should go, making
sure that your kids know that they're accepted
and loved by you, making sure your kids know
that, no matter what they do, there's always a safe place
to come to you and talk to you and communicate with
you and cry with you, and that you're not going
to respond in anger, flying into fury. There might be a
discipline for the sin, but you're going
to respond in love, and you're going
to talk to them. And you're going to
lead them through that. The article said
that parents need to understand that being
accepted by friends is more important to their teen
than being accepted by parents, which means the response to
that means that your kids need to know that you accept them
more than their friends. Your kids need to know that
while their friends might turn on a whim, you never will. You never will leave
them or forsake them. You will always be there for
them, no matter what happens. Now, this can be good
or bad, depending on who those peers are, right? Again, talk about the importance
of making sure your kids are hanging out with
the right people. If they turn to
their peers first, then we better make sure we
know who their peers are. Remember, we said last week
that Satan wants to isolate you. Like a lion stalking
his prey, he wants to isolate
and destroy you. And there is
nowhere this is more apparent than in peer pressure. Because if he can
isolate you and make you feel like you're the
only one who isn't doing it, then he can get you to give
in to even the worse things that you know are wrong, that
you think you would never do, if you just feel like it will
give you some acceptance. I want to point out,
too, this isn't just teenagers that deal with this. This is adults, too. You're probably hearing
this, thinking, man, I'm glad he keeps saying
teenagers, because that's me. This applies to adults, too. This applies to
business practices. This applies to
marriage practices. This applies to
sexual practices. This applies to
voting practices. This applies to
social media habits. This applies to a
multitude of areas. It's easy for us to say, well,
because other people are doing it, because other
Christians are doing it, it must not be that bad. I read of an experiment
that was done to show how a person
handled group pressure. And this was fascinating. It was done in the
'50s, it has been done in more recent
times in various ways. But what they did is they
took 10 college students, and the college
students were instructed to raise their hands when a
teacher pointed to the longest line on three separate charts. There was three
different lines, and they were instructed, when we
point to the longest line, raise your hand. What one person didn't
know in the group is that the other nine were
instructed ahead of time to vote for the
second longest line. See, the researchers wanted to
determine how one person would react when they were surrounded
by a large number of people who stood against what
was apparently true. And so the experiment
began with nine teens voting for the wrong line,
raising their hands and saying, yeah, that's the longest one. And the isolated person would
typically glance around them, frown in confusion, and
slowly slip his hand up with the group. And the instructions
were repeated again. OK, we're going
to do this again. Pick the longest line. And time after time,
the person would sit there saying that a
short line is longer than a long line, simply because
they lacked the courage to challenge the group. This occurred in 75% of cases
and was true of small children, all the way up to
college students alike. Now, you probably think
that's ridiculous. I wouldn't do that. I'd raise my hand, and I'd say
the long line is the longest line. But isn't that
exactly what we do when we do what we
know we shouldn't just because our friends
are doing it? We know it's wrong. We know what the truth is. And yet, we look
around and glance in confusion as all of our
friends, even Christians, are doing the wrong thing. And we just slip our
hand up, because we don't want the confrontation,
because we don't want to be the one person who shines
a flashlight in their eyes and says, you guys just
picked the wrong line. But they need somebody to shine
the flashlight in their eyes. They need somebody to show
them that's not right. And I'm going to stand
for what is right. I don't care what kind of
feedback I get because of that. I don't care what
kind of criticism I garner because of it. I'm going to do what's right. I'm going to stand for
what's righteous, regardless of whether it's popular or not. Look, no one likes to be
singled out in the crowd. No one wants to be the last
one picked for the team. Americans are depicted as
stand alone individualists. But that is not true. We would rather blend in and fit
in than rise through the heat. We will do almost
anything to be accepted. Our greatest fear,
as human beings, is to be rejected by the group. We're more content with
being thermometers, showing the temperature to the
crowd, than being thermostats and changing the
environment around us. But church, it's time to
rise through the heat, to be different than
the world around us, to push aside cultural barriers
that hold us back from living lives that are truly memorable. Just because the world says
it's OK, doesn't mean it is. As a matter of fact, if the
majority says it's good, it probably isn't. Since when has the majority
ever been right, ever? The majority hailed
Christ as King and then a day later
chanted, we want Barabbas. The majority of the spies that
went into the land of Israel came back and said
there's giants there. There's no way we
can take the land. The majority bowed to this
statue of Nebuchadnezzar. Since when is the
majority right? If you want to know what
the right thing is to do, usually the best thing is to
look at what the world's doing and do the opposite. [APPLAUSE] We're not called to be
thermometers and just show what the world is doing. We're called to be thermostats. And sometimes that can
feel uncomfortable. Sometimes a sudden change
in the thermostat setting can make everyone
else in the house feel a little bit uncomfortable. But that's what
we're called to do. It's no wonder the Bible
refers to us as sheep. The Bible says all we like
sheep have gone astray. You know, sheep always like
to hear together and follow the leader, which is good
if the leader is Jesus. But it's bad if
it's anything else. Hey, you want to tell if
you're following Jesus? Look at what you're doing
and where you're going. Are the things you're doing
things that Jesus would do? Is the path you're headed down
the path that Jesus would take? If it's not, then you're
probably not following Jesus. Sheep are so timid and
fearful, that an entire flock can be panicked into a
stampede by one stray jack rabbit jumping from the bushes. It can cause a
whole herd of sheep to stampede and run over
and kill each other. When one startled
sheep runs, others will follow in
blind fear, bumping and bruising themselves,
even breaking their own legs in excitement. At other times, when they're
approached by a predator, the sheep will form a little
ball and watch dumbfounded and paralyzed by
fear as one by one, all the sheep are torn
apart, until it gets to them. Flocks of sheep have been
known to go over a cliff because one greedy stray thinks
that he's missing something over that ledge. And I actually found a story
about that that illustrates that it actually happened. In Turkey, there
was a news article that reported that 450
sheep jumped to their death. And the article said this. "First, one sheep
jumped to its death. Then stunned Turkish
shepherds, who had left the herd to graze
while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 other
sheep followed, each one leaping off the same cliff. And in the end, 450 dead animals
lay one on top of the other in a billowy, white pile. Those who jumped later were only
saved as the pile got higher, and the fall became
more cushioned." 1,500 making the same
dumb mistake just because the last one did. I understand why God
called us sheep now. Because that's
what mankind does. Even when we see the outcome of
other people's sins, we do it. Even when we see people
overdose and die, even when we see people
get STDs and get pregnant, even when we see
people lose everything, because they got a
little bit too greedy, we make the same decisions,
because we're all like sheep who have gone astray. It's so true of
our culture today. People ignore the thousands
who have destroyed their lives with
drugs, or they think they'll never get pregnant. But Proverbs 14:12
says, there is a way that seems right to a
man, and its end is death. Think of how many have had
their lives ruined because they wanted to fit in, be thought
of as cool or acceptable. In the heat of the crowd,
you have two choices. You can either rise through
the heat of the crowd, or you can fall in the
midst of the crowd. And like a sheep,
you can end up being at the bottom of a large
pile of stupid sheep who are meeting the same fate. The heat of pressure
can either build you up or it can break you. The heat of other
people's sins can either strengthen your resolve
or cause you to dissolve. And the only way to
break free from the crowd is to follow the Good Shepherd. Jesus said, in John 10:4,
the sheep follow him, and they know his voice. Church, it's time to
put aside petty excuses. If you really want to
follow Jesus, you will. You will. And all those who
don't will be strays. The word that Jesus
used for follow implies more than just the thought
of a sheep tagging along blindly behind their
owner and just, well, I don't know
where I'm going. Let's just bloop-de-blue. It means one who deliberately
decides to comply with specific instructions. I think there's a
theological word for that. It's called sanctification. Sanctification is following
the Good Shepherd. Justification is coming
down to the front and saying a prayer to
accept Jesus Christ. Sanctification is what happens
after that, as you walk out those doors, and you make
a deliberate decision to do what God has
told you to do. You make a deliberate
decision to, every day, take a step towards him
instead of away from him. Sanctification is
the continual process where a believer is
constantly giving over the things of
their life to Jesus and being made
more in his image. If you want to know if you're
following the Shepherd, the question is,
are you sanctified? Because you can't
have justification without sanctification. If you're not experiencing
sanctification, then the justification that you
think is taking you to heaven was like a seed that was
thrown on rocky soil. It sprung up for a second, but
it had no roots, and it died. It's like a seed that was
thrown into a nest of thorns, of weeds. And it rose up, but
the peer pressure, the heat of life, the heat of
the crowd, strangled it out. I wonder, how many of those
dead seeds know they're dead? I wonder, how many
of those dead seeds realize that they're
not producing fruit? Or if they just think,
oh, this is normal. This is what
Christianity looks like. If you're not experiencing
sanctification, then I challenge you
to take a hard look at your justification. Second Timothy to 2:22
says, "Turn your back on the turbulent
desires of youth and give your positive attention
to goodness, integrity, love, and peace, in company
with all those who approach the
Lord in sincerity." Look at verse 15 of
Daniel, chapter three. It says, "Now if you are ready,
at the time that you hear the sound of the horn, the
flute, the harp, the lyre and the psaltery, in symphony
with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship
the image which I have made, good. But if you do not
worship, you shall be cast immediately
into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace." And man, here you
hear the challenge, "and who is the God that will
deliver you from my hands?" Wow. A direct challenge that
Nebuchadnezzar makes, a challenge really to God. What a big mistake. Pharaoh said, who is the
Lord that I should obey him? He found out who the Lord was. He found out why
he should obey him, and so does Nebuchadnezzar. Look at verse 16. "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king, oh, Nebuchadnezzar,
we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case,
our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from
the burning, fiery furnace. And he will deliver us
from your hand, oh king." I like their response. Who's going to deliver
you from my hand? Our God will deliver
us from your hand. In verse 18, "But if not,
let it be known, oh king, that we do not serve
your gods, nor will we worship the gold image
that you have set up." I love their response. They say, hey, God can save us. You want to know
what will save us? God can save us. But if he doesn't, it doesn't
matter, because you're right. We don't serve your gods. And we'd rather
go in the furnace. We'd rather be in the
heat of the furnace than in the heat of the crowd. Basically, they say,
hey, God can save us. But if he doesn't,
it's better to burn now than to burn eternally. I want you to point out. They weren't questioning
God's ability to deliver them. We see that in verse 16 and 17. They had faith that
God could deliver them. They had faith that
God could take them from the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. But rather, they're
acknowledging that his will might not be
that they're going to be saved. Jesus taught us to pray, thy
kingdom come, thy will be done. You know, this must have
been quite a shock to a man as powerful as Nebuchadnezzar. It spoiled his party. They rained on his parade. Luke 12:4 says, "Be
not afraid of them that kill the body, but rather
that have no more that they can do to you. For I will tell you
who you should fear. Fear him who, after
he has killed, has power to throw into hell." Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego found that the heat of
the crowd was worse than the heat of the furnace. That is to say,
they would rather be thrown into the
heat of the furnace than to give in to
the heat of the crowd. The thought of following
God into a furnace was more appealing to
them than the thought of following the crowd. And in that furnace,
they would prove that they were thermostats,
not thermometers. As that heat got turned
up, it didn't affect them. They turned the thermostat
on and said, man, you can make it as hot as you
want in here, because we've got the power to make it cool. You know, the furnace was
really an illustration of what the heat of the crowd
could do to them, nothing. If the furnace
couldn't cook them, there was no way
the crowd could. These three Hebrew,
holy boys rained on Nebuchadnezzar's parade. And imagine how it must have
looked for them to stand up straight while everyone
else was bowing down, while everyone else
was lying prostrate. Again, remember, every single
area that Babylon controlled was commanded to
have delegates come to this glorious procession. And as everyone bowed down,
not only did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego not bow down,
they said, you can't make us. We don't serve your god. Our God's bigger, better,
and stronger than you. They boldly proclaimed
their faith in Jesus Christ, not caring what it caused
to their mortal bodies. It just goes to show you
what a few people can do. Moses, by his godly living,
kept an entire nation from turning to full idolatry
while he was with them. It's interesting,
when Moses left, how quickly the people went
into idolatry with Aaron leading them. One Christian
acting as true salt can make a major
difference in the world. It goes back to what
we said last week. What big thing does God
want to do with your life? It doesn't matter
how small you feel. The little decisions that
you make where you are now will eventually lead you
to those big decisions that will define your legacy. Maybe God won't put
you in that position to make a difference until
your resolve to follow him is firm where you're at. Look, God is not going to
throw you in the deep waters if you still don't know how
to swim without floaties. He's not cruel. If you want God to throw
you in the deep end, then make sure you
can swim first. Make the small
decisions right now, the little decisions
that you don't think matter, the little sins
that you think aren't that bad. Clean your life
up of those first, and then ask God to throw
you in the deep end. Then ask God to
put you in a place where you can be trusted
with a big decision that could define your legacy. And thank God that
he hasn't given you one of those big decisions yet,
if you're not ready for it. Because if you don't make
those big decisions right, that determines the
outcome of your life. Like a thermostat,
just a few people can affect the entire
moral climate around them. Instead of sweating or
burning up in the heat, they just turn on
the air conditioning. Or the heat of the furnace
doesn't seem that bad. Do you rise through the heat, or
do you melt under its pressure? Into the furnace,
these brave boys went, and the people of
the kingdom watched with perverse fascination
to see the fate of them. And boy, how they
were surprised when they saw not three, but four. The world watches
with great interest when the Christian faces
hardship and adversity. They want to see if
our faith is real. I want you to look
at verse 25 with me. Let's skip ahead. And I want you to look
at a couple more verses. We'll be closed. Verse 25, we know the story. They've been thrown
into the fiery furnace. They say they're not
going to do what's wrong. Nebuchadnezzar
calls their bluff, throws them in the furnace. In verse 25,
Nebuchadnezzar says, look, I see four men
loose, walking around in the midst of the fire,
and they are not hurt. And the form of the fourth
is like the Son of God. Wow. We see a Christophany
here, Jesus coming before his
incarnate, human form comes. We see Jesus standing
in the fire with them. Isaiah 43:2 says, 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 burn. The flames will
not set you ablaze. I wonder if that
was a worship song, and if that was the song they
were singing in that furnace? Jesus said, I am with you, even
until the end of the world. Hebrews 13 says, I
will never, no never, no never leave you
or forsake you. So that we may boldly say,
the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear
what can man do to me. Oh Nebuchadnezzar,
you want to know who can save me from your hand? My God can save
you from your hand. My God can save
me from the things that you have planned for me. My God can save
me from the things that you think are
going to overcome me, from the things that you
think are going to break me, from the things that you
think are going to cause me to worship your god. My God is bigger than
that, and he will never leave me or forsake me. So do what you can,
because it's nothing. This is the unique hope that
only the child of God has. As we close, I want to tell you
a story of two people in Rome, who had the same resolve. One is a guy named Polycarp. Polycarp was a servant,
a follower of Christ. And as an aged man, Polycarp
was arrested and brought before the Roman authorities
in the amphitheater. And he was told, have
respect for your old age. Swear by the genius of Caesar. In other words, Polycarp,
say that Caesar is Lord. And Polycarp said, look,
86 years, I've served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme
my King, who saved me? While Polycarp was taken
to the stake to be burned, and the guard who was
about to torch him said, I don't want to
burn you, old man. The fire will be hot. And Polycarp's reply was,
not as hot as the fire that they will experience who
reject my Lord Jesus Christ. The soldier lit the fire, and
the fire encircled Polycarp. But we're told,
in Church history, that the flames did not touch
him as he sang praises to God. And it drove the
Roman authorities to be so angered that the
flames weren't burning him and that he was still
worshipping God, that they thrust him
through with a spear. And the blood from his body
extinguished the flames. And he continued
worshipping God. Now, eventually, he did die. But he went to heaven. And he died exactly
as he had lived. He died well, because he
went to be with the Lord. We have another story from
Church history of a Christian who was persecuted by Rome. And the emperor said
to him, give up Christ. If you don't, I'll banish you. And the Christian replied, you
cannot banish me from Christ, for God says that I will never
leave you or forsake you. The ruler said, I'll
confiscate your property. The Christian said, my
treasures are laid up in heaven, and you can't touch them. The emperor said, I'll kill you. And the Christian
said, I've been dead to the world in
Christ for 40 years. My life is hid
with Christ in God. You can't touch it. The emperor, so
frustrated, turned to some of the
members of his court and said in disgust, what can
you do with such a fanatic? Man, let those same words
be said of you and I. Let the world look
at our lives and say, what can we do with them? What can we do with them? Their faith is so strong. What can we do with them? How can we hurt them? As we close, look at verse 28. Verse 28. "Nebuchanezzar spoke,
saying, blessed be the God of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel and
delivered his servants who trusted in him. And they have frustrated
the king's word and yielded their bodies,
that they should not serve nor worship any God
except their own God." Romans 6 tells us,
don't you realize that you become the slave of
whatever you yield yourself to? Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego yield themselves to worship no
God but the one true God. As we close, my question for you
is, who do you yield your body to, the crowd or the Christ? What heat will you yield to? When the heat of the crowd
gets turned up in your life and tries to melt you into
its mold, will you go with it? Or will you, like
Rach, Shach, and Benny, rise through the heat and
make it through the furnace? Some yield to sensual pleasure,
sexual looseness, drugs, others to selfishness. But we should present
ourselves to God. Church, I challenge you. It's time to rise
through the heat. It's time to stand
up in a world that doesn't like the way we live. Amen? Will you stand
with me as we pray? Lord God, we stand
as believers in you, recognizing that
your plans for us are a lot better
and a lot stronger than the evil plans that
the world has for us. And Lord, while the world wants
to bend us, break us, and melt us into its mold, Lord,
you want to make us into something new, something
beautiful, something glorious, something that will bring
your truth and your glory to a dark and sad world. And so God, we ask
that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit, that you
would prepare us for the task that you have set before
us, that you would give us the resolve to not
dissolve, the strength to challenge the world system. And Lord, that you
would give us the faith to make the right decisions,
even the small decisions, even when it feels
like no one's watching, even when it feels like it's
not going to hurt anybody, even when it feels
like nobody will know, Lord, help us make
the right decisions. Help us live for you
and walk with you. In Jesus' name, we pray. And everyone who agreed said. Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] What binds us
together is devotion to worshiping our Heavenly
Father, dedication to studying his word, and determination
to proclaim our eternal hope in Jesus Christ. For more teachings from Calvary
Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit calvaryabq.org.
