Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego - BC #5 | Jonathan Pokluda

summers here baby come on here's what that means tonight that means that there are a bunch of young adults gathered downtown Dallas as well as Fort Worth as well as Houston I think we may have a picture of the downtown do you guys have that I don't know if you guys got that or not if you do throw it up if not no worries we'll show you guys later but anyways bunch of young adults gathered at Gilley's or the Southside Ballroom tonight I love summer you guys like summer they love summer I like to get outside I like to get by the lake hang out with the family I love to grill which reminds me today I was reminded of this story that I was a group of us was kind of a guys weekend and we were hanging at my buddy's lake house and it's kind of like a lake cabin if you will and we were grilling so as a bunch of dudes we went to Central Market got the good steaks the fat filet and and my buddy who was grilling was was pretty excited about it the rest of us got in the truck and we were driving around just kind of looking for animals and stuff and we came back excited to feast and as we get out of the car he hear him yelling which is not normal because he's kind of like an excitable guy you know and I think he's just happy about the filets and as I walk around out back it is this scene that I will never forget okay he has set his entire deck ablaze I mean bond fire that is moving toward his house here's what happened as he was cooking these filets he didn't realize that the lighter fluid was under the charcoal grill like too close to this like just sitting under there getting hot and getting hot and getting hot and as he saw it kind of ballooning kind of expanding he tried to grab it with some some tongs and it just liquefied empty and so this like liquid fire ran all over his deck and started seeping in between the deck burning it from underneath which all that's underneath are these dry pine needles so it's like this perfect storm of a fire right and so and so this is going on so we kind of walk back we see this fire but then the comedy of errors in soup because what happens is he goes to get the water hose but it's one of those water hoses that kind of wraps up in this box if you will that's kind of connected to this other little hose he picks up the box and it rips away from the wall and so he's left with this 4-foot water hose 15-foot from the bonfire as its approaching his house and so he turns on the water full blast and he's trying to perfectly arch this streamer and so this is what I walk up on he's like oh wow I'm like what do you want me to do and so a bunch of us write the rest of us guys we don't know to do there's no water hose now and so we run inside and when you start filling up Dicky's cups with with water Hey like like one guys just out there spitting on you no we got nothing right we're trying to put out this fire and and so what we end up you know eventually like he kind of saturates the deck and it runs in between and to this day he has this huge burnt mark he'd hadn't replaced the deck just this huge burnt mark that uh that we saw but the next day we woke up and we're just kind of praising God that we're still alive and the house is still there and and we're talking about it we're laughing about it now and at least the rest of us were and I go in his cabinet to get a coke and and right there is a fire extinguisher as I hey bro you know you got a fire extinguisher in here he goes no and I go yeah you look right here like like seven feet from the he's right here because I thought man I forgot I had that he's like man that would have been really useful yesterday right that would have been something that I wish I would have remembered yesterday and he said in something I hope I never had to use and as I think about us tonight I think that's how we view our faith like we think hey I've trusted in Christ and so now I a Christian which means I have a faith in the one true God I hope I never have to use it and then what happens when we face the fires of this life is it's not the first thing we're reaching for because we haven't been using it in every day we forgot we had it we might as well not let me go one step further with you but if you don't like if you have a faith that you don't use do you really have a faith if you have a faith that you don't live according to and make decisions around and it doesn't impact the direction of your life what you do where you go how you hang out how you talk everything about your life is it really a faith or is it something like like maybe you view it as kind of fire insurance if you will a get out of hell free card or something that you kind of filed away that way one day hopefully that will get me into heaven but but I'm not going to use it here and let me tell you something Dallas Fort Worth Houston America is full of lukewarm Christianity and Christianity and the Bible does not speak fondly of lukewarm Christians it's a weird time to live 2016 where you can kind of be cool and kind of be a Christian at the same time you look backwards that's never really been the case and looking backwards Christians always stood out they always stood out against culture they always stood out by the way they loved they were not the cool kids and then all of the sudden is 2016 and we've just kind of blended in and I'm asking the question is a lukewarm Christian any sort of Christian and that's something we have to wrestle with this evening and so we're in this series BC which just is the Old Testament it stands for before Christ I'm sorry BC which is you know pre 2016 pre Jesus coming up on the scene and we're looking at these stories of the Old Testament and we're moving toward Christ and we're looking at people who have a faith that also point to Jesus and so tonight we'll be in Daniel chapter 3 if you want to turn there Daniel chapter three and we're asking this question what does real faith look like and so we're going to look at the lives of three men Shadrach Meshach and Abednego if you've heard this story if you had it read to you as a child if you have heard it here before have heard it taught before it's an incredible story a historical account and as we move through it we're going to look at how a real faith is counterculture cultural how a real faith is uncompromising and how a real faith makes converts of our critics and so I'll set this up there's this King his name is Nebuchadnezzar historical account history does not deny this man they do everybody historians any credible historian would say Nebuchadnezzar was absolutely a king he was a real king he's this narcissistic guy he's the king of the Babylonian Empire he has conquered much of the known world he's moved into Jerusalem he's burned down the temple and he's taken captives but this guy is smart okay like if you look at the Assyrian King that the Assyrian Empire they were really great at skinning people alive they had perfected it if you look at the Persian Empire they were great at crucifying people the Babylonian Empire is great at brainwashing people and mixing them into their culture that's what they're really good at so that's what he does as he moves into Jerusalem he takes God's people and he takes some captain but those who are royal or those who are in the upper class those people that everyone else looked up to he gives them jobs and he feeds them well and he bribes them with food and a great life he says hey come and work for me and you can have a great life I liken this guy to President Snow if you've seen the Hunger Games that's kind of what I think of as I think of King Nebuchadnezzar and so he begins to brainwash his captives and one way that he does this is he just changes the world they know starting with their names and so he takes these three men who were the upper class they were nobility and he gives them he offers them a good life and he takes Hananiah which means God is gracious and changes his name to Shadrach which means commander of the moon-god he takes miss Yale which means who is like God and he changes his name to me Shaq which means who is like the moon god he takes Azariah which means God has helped and he changes his name to Abednego which means servant of the god Nabu and in Daniel 3 what he does to these 4,600 Jews who are mixed into the Babylonian Empire is he builds this gold statue 90 feet tall that's as tall as an eight story building if you've seen an eight-story building 90 feet tall 9 feet wide and he's going to offer he's going to present it to the kingdom and so his people come forward he says hey whenever you hear the music guys listen whenever you hear the music I want you to bow down and worship the statue and by the way if you don't we're going to cook you alive so just do it never zero okay you got it and that's where it picks up verse 8 chapter 3 of Daniel verse 8 at this time some astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews so there's these Babylonian astrologers they don't like the Jews and they said to King Nebuchadnezzar may the King live forever your Majesty has issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn flute zither lyre heart pipe and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the image of gold and that whoever does not fall down in worship will be thrown into the blazing furnace but there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon you've given them great jobs King these guys Shadrach Meshach and Abednego they pay no attention to you your majesty they neither serve your God's nor worship the image of gold you have set up furious with rage now Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach Meshach and Abednego so these men were brought before the king and Nebuchadnezzar said to them is it true guys Shadrach Meshach Abednego that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up now listen come on guys ok let's just kind of go through the exercise whenever you hear the horn the flute the zither lyre the heart the piper all kinds of music if you're ready to fall down and worship the image I made very good but if you do not worship it you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace then what God will you have what God will be able to rescue you from my hand so Shadrach Meshach and Abednego these three men they stand in contrast to their culture they stand out they stand out because of what they are unwilling to do in the midst of 4,600 of their peers all of them face down on the ground these men standing upright saying we can't bow to a foreign God now how are we doing tonight how are we doing it going against the culture or going with the culture you guys heard this song on Panda let me sing you for you if you have panda panda panda panda panda panda panda panda panda anybody heard that like I tweeted out the other day like this is the stupidest song I've ever heard and so people started responding they were like I was like Howard this on the radio and like well it's it's a great beat man great be fun to dance to so they're cool man so I just I just googled it like I'm just like one of hey I want to read the lyrics I was going to read them to you tonight I can't I can't I would lose all credibility with you immediately I mean wicked vile things okay let's go get coked out of our mind then let's go sell coke and then let's go abuse women for sport and if you're not in you're a little girl that's as clean as I can make it let's go man hey cue the music bow down if I'm like move you know pandas who's a great beat how we doing guys how're we doing standing against the current of our culture my first point is real faith is countercultural real faith is countercultural I don't know if you've ever heard to be in the world but not of the world it's usually said by someone who is of the world and I know Jesus said it but here's the deal you're in the world that parts taken care of you don't have to try to be in the world okay you're in the world you can't not be in the world you're in the world and you're called not to be of the world to stand apart from the world and so as followers of the one true God our decision should cause us to stand out both what we choose to do and what we choose not to do and it seems to me that everybody's trying to stand out that no one stands out like when I go to the mall today right I'm just looking at every like the thugs and the preps and the hipsters and everybody just looks crazy and it's like they all kind of mix in and everybody's trying not to be normal so everyone's normal it's like the cool thing is to rebel against culture so there are no rebels except those that say I won't do that I'm not in I don't need to be different to stand out I'm going to embrace god I'm going to let this faith mark my life we stand out as Christ's followers wherever we go it's like it's like in in order disorder stands out like in morality immorality stands out when you're in class and the teacher is holding everyone's attention that one guy who keeps acting out who keeps acting up he's disrupting the entire class bringing attention to himself he stands out but when everyone is acting out the one person who is sitting still doing what they should do they stand out there the rebel they're the countercultural one in immorality morality stands out in a world that rejects God a person who fully embraces God stands out not someone with the fire extinguisher in the closet but someone who was using it on the daily standing out it's not always fun you face persecution listen you probably won't be burned alive probably I mean that probably is not gonna but persecute you might spend Friday night alone and for some of you that's just as terrifying and I'm just here tonight to tell you minutes gonna be okay if you're alone Friday night it's going to be alright it seems to me that Christians today are the most unwilling to stand out by their choices than they've ever been we're scared of being identified as weird in fact there's a group of sociologists that did a study in a book called premarital sex in America and they studied two groups of men unmarried call it college educated ages 18 to 23 all the men were unmarried college educated ages 18 to 23 but they classified them in two groups the first groups were men who were raised in a family where they said it's completely okay to have sex outside of marriage it's completely okay to have premarital sex like that was just the theology the world that they were raised in and the second group of men were raised in a family a Christian family judeo-christian values that say sex outside of marriage is wrong and so of the first group of men who were raised in a family where they said there's nothing wrong with sex outside of marriage amongst that demographic 23 percent of them were virgins only 23 percent but in group 2 those that were raised in the family that sex outside of marriage is wrong 20 percent were virgin less and here's what's going on because they said hey we have a belief but our belief does not influence our behavior we have a theology but we've been more influenced by culture we're not countercultural we're more cultural than culture is my belief doesn't influence what I do now I say I believe this but I do what I want it's not a real belief it's a fake belief it's not a real belief I said they had convictions but when things got hot they went the way of culture and this is my story I was raised in the church I mean I was like over church let me know I went to a church school church on Sunday church on Wednesday two churches on Sunday went to Lutheran Church Catholic Church First Baptist Cuero Texas teen time every week man they brought in the speaker to do the True Love Waits campaign I bought the ring I got the certificate dug my heels in the sand I'm going to abstain from sex until I married God I take the vow with all of these people there's no way I'm going to do that God in a relationship as a teenager a toxic relationship crossed physical boundaries that just got further and further and further and sex and I remember going home that night it happened and I remember laying in my bed all by myself weeping how did this happen how did this happen how did I do this thing I promised I would never ever do how did I compromise my convictions and the only way I knew to cope was to do it again and then again and then again and then with her and then with her and then with and then it just became sport it became the objective so this thing that I was completely opposed to became the thing that I started aiming at I was washed up man completely compromised and it happens with alcohol one Mambo taxi turns into two drugs money spending the way you dress what you watch what you listen to and what you do contradicts what you say you believe and it's just confusing because who wants to be the only one at the party sober who wants to be the only one that wasn't invited to the party who wants to be the only one who doesn't see Deadpool or neighbors - or who wants to be the only one at the lake in a one-piece who wants to be that girl let me show you some guys verse sixteen Shadrach Meshach and Abednego replied to him King Nebuchadnezzar we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter if we are thrown into the blazing furnace the God we serve is able to deliver us from it and he will deliver us from your Majesty's hand and listen underline verse eighteen focus on this pay attention but even if he does not but even if he does not we want you to know your majesty that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up and tell you why that but even if he does not is so important because in our culture in America we kind of pride ourselves on making decisions and we call it critical thinking or problem-solving and we're taught it in school and so what we do when we're faced with the decision is we begin to process the possible outcomes so we look at a decision we say well if I make that decision when that will happen if I make this decision that will happen now what's the right decision but I'm telling you you can't judge obedience by the outcome or the perceived outcome when God's Word speaks to it and so that's not what these men do they didn't say well if we do that we're going to be burned alive but if we don't do that we'll live so will we choose life they say God's in charge of the outcome we're just going to obey and he will rescue us but even if he doesn't we're going to be faithful we're going to hold to our convictions my second point this evening is a real faith is uncompromising a real faith doesn't compromise see the most creative person on the planet is someone seeking to justify their sin all right and an opportunity to compromise they begin saying things well does the Bible really say that and you know I don't know and what if I do this and they begin to think about all of the effective ministry that's going to happen if they go to the bar they have the drink or the way of the dress or whatever it is that that they're processing I know this dress doesn't cover my butt but and even though it's a little tight you know it's it's still covering everything I know I shouldn't date him but maybe it's a chance to share Jesus I know it's the club but it's the birthday girl that's where she wants to go and and didn't Jesus hang out with sinners it's my boys bachelor party what am I not supposed to go like I'm going to be the one that doesn't go the bat that's really what you think god that's not I don't think that's what God wants and you want to be like so you compromise because we're still even after college trying to be popular trying to be liked you working out looking good you got a new swimsuit you want to show it off you go to the lake the music is playing I mean of course you're going to dance you're not even drunk right people are taking pictures of you and now all of those pictures are getting liked it feels good to be liked so of course the bikini was a great idea even though your faith is compromised even though your witness was compromised even though you confused your message it's worth it right it happens when we begin to think the Bible is an outdated idea is that what it really means unless she risks being alone man you totally do I believe my God is going to give me a spouse but even if he doesn't I ain't going to wear that I believe my God is going to save this family member I've been praying for but even if he doesn't I'm not going to compromise I believe he's going to bring me some friends but if he doesn't I'm not going to club man not up for that but even if he doesn't and yes it will cost you and yes I have paid the price on a case I have failed at this miserably like sometimes I've just convicted him like am i leading them astray do am i trying to be the cool Christian at times am i standing out enough I can remember on one particular occasion I was in charge of planning the bachelor party and so I did everything I could I was I was a believer as walking with Christ and so I rented a tour bus that was my grand idea and we stopped at one place as we were going to go fishing and we stopped at one place where there was alcohol and and it was that you know as a restaurant whatnot and we get out for an hour we eat and as we get back on the bus all the guys are they've convinced some girls to come on the bus with us and to go fishing with us some of them married and I stood at the door and I'm like not today boys it's not going to happen today and what me I mean the Holy Spirit strengthened my conviction in the moment gave me courage in the moment and it cost me I talked about it here and I mean it cost me relationships I mean guys said hey we're done dude taking your faith too far man we are so out we are so done with that but it's been amazing to watch as the years have passed by how God has gone back and grabbed the hearts of some of those men and made them real men and amazing husbands and amazing fathers and in ways I never I didn't even have enough faith to believe that he would he's done incredible things and so you got to say hey this is what I'm gonna do because it's right and my god is gonna he's going to help me he's going to protect me but even if he does and I'm not going to compromise I'm not going to compromise what I know to be right and if you want to compromise your convictions and you want to walk through life with a weak counterfeit faith you will have plenty of opportunities I mean listen we have let's just kind of go through the gamut of what has happened on our watch right we've redefined marriage okay boys the boys like as you raise girls okay like I'm raising girls and as you raise girls I'm talking to you now okay boys are going to be able to go to the bathroom with them that's going to happen and that happened on our watch I know our grandparents generation introduced divorce into the situation this is what we've introduced into the situation on our watch these are the things that we've done we're working to legalize marijuana and increasingly more and more as logic is applied to the issues it is identified as hate speech which is crazy like imagine this you're trying to lovingly explain to someone that they are a boy because they have a penis and you're called a bigot and some of you here and listening take pride in the reality that this has happened on our watch we call it civil rights and I say what oh what a tremendous insult does the civil rights movement what a tremendous insult and don't you understand in civil rights it was the people who were marching against the culture of that time now it's everyone marching with the culture of that time calling it good and right and true now listen listen in case you're about to leave or you're frustrated or you disagree I love my transgender friends I love my homosexual people who identifies homosexual friends thank you what you need a room you got a room stay at my house you need money I got you let me know how can I serve you how can I help you but I'm not going to further your confusion by caving in to what culture teaches that's not helpful praise God for some agreement but even if you didn't I ain't going to compromise I'm going to lovingly teach the truth like these men loving these do you see what they did they winsome lee said your majesty and it started in Daniel one two chapters before this they're asked to eat some defiling food the king is offering them a feast and wine and we don't know why it would defile them maybe it was sacrificed to idols maybe it was unclean food but they're asked to eat it and they say we won't do that but but they don't say like that they don't say we won't do that they say hey can we suggest something else like what if you just feed us vegetables and and they say well if we just feed you vegetables you're not going to be able to do the work the king no what if you feed us vegetables and we work harder than everybody else and we do everything that you ask us to well you just give it a try and they say yeah here's what they're saying to you say hey let us prove our convictions are right to you give us time and observe us we don't have to hate you we don't have to talk aggressively or with angst to you we don't have to be mean to you we can we just sit down and talk logically about this issue and when you give me some time and see if I can win you over the way that I work diligent and and and you know how I winsome ly disagree my friend Blake the guy that caught his deck on fire he didn't know where his fire extinguisher was but that brother knows where his faith is he uses it all the time I get to see him use it all the time and let me tell you something he's a dad and when his son his five year old was hit with acute lymphoma leukemia a terminal sickness that brothers on the ninth floor of Children's Medical Center and he said hey you don't determine if you have a faith in the ninth floor a Children's Medical Center when you watch your son getting poked and prodded and poisoned intentionally and screaming in pain and agony and you sit and you watch on this side of a glass you don't decide then hey do I really believe I can trust you God god I trust that you're going to heal my son but even if you don't I'm not going to turn away from you God I trust you're going to bring someone to me to spend the rest of my life with but if you don't I'm not wagering that bet with you I'll go to heaven with you and indulge in all the glories of your presence if it means being single the rest of my days I trust you will give me a child one day but if you don't I'm not going to turn from you I trust you will save my loved one but even if you don't god there's nothing that would turn my heart from you verse 19 then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and his attitude toward them changed now no longer bargaining no longer wanting to talk he ordered that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace so these men wearing their robes their trousers their turbans and other clothes were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace it's going to great links to show you the detail that these men have a lot of flammable things on okay there they're going to be torched but the king's command was so urgent it was so hasty he's so angry and the furnace was so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and these three men firmly tied fell into the blazing furnace this is nonsense and rage is what's happening because listen if you want to slowly if you want to torture somebody if you're mad at them you don't turn a furnace up you turn it down you say hey cool down the fire let them burn slow I want to hear their screams I know that's sick but that's what you would do right you wouldn't say hey turn it up seven times hotter so they burned right away what's God doing here God is using the rage of men to show you how powerful he is stack the cards against me I'm God watch me flex that's what he said so it's the new JP version is what he said when you want me to fight a giant give me a boy in some rocks I don't need a tank man he's God then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire they replied certainly your majesty but just just okay cuz I like blew past it can you imagine the angst and the heartache that you would feel on that day hey guys we were faithful you looking at your boys I also love the fact that they weren't alone said you're going to be left alone but these guys had community they were in it together locked arms let's go we're not going to compromise our faith but they're looking each other in the eyes they're looking at the furnace they feel the heat man here it is man it's been real let's go he says wait what's what's going on there what there were three men that we that we threw in the fire I don't understand look I see four men walking around in the fire now unbound and unharmed and and the fourth one looks like a son of the gods that word gods there is Elohim it's where we get the it's the word for the one true God the Yahweh Jehovah that we worship and in there is the son of that God protecting them he's in the fire with them and Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted Shadrach Meshach and Abednego servants of the Most High God come out come here so Shadrach Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire and the sat traps prefect governor and royal advisors crowded around them and they saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies nor was their hair that nor was a hair of their heads singed their robes were not scorched and there was no smell of fire on them then Nebuchadnezzar said praise be to the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego who has sent his angel any time you see his angel or the angel of the Lord it's a reference to the pre-incarnate christ Jesus before he was born of Mary 2016 years ago he has sent his angel and rescued his servants they trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give their lives rather than serve or worship any God except their own God therefore I decree the people of any nation or language who say anything against the god of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces then their houses be turned into piles of rubble for no god can save in this way and the three were promoted over the province of Babylon so this man who is completely crazy he hates God and he won't let anyone worship the one true God now he turns completely worships that God and says hey if you don't worship Him I'm going to cut you into pieces and tear down your house and I ain't playing he's crazy and Jesus shows up in the fire and protects them and it happened it's not like a fairy tale it's not like this thing we like Disney made up its true and so my third and final point is real faith converts critics real faith converts critics so when people see you faithfully living out your faith they take an interest in your faith it's it's weird it's why you're the only you're the only person they're sober so weird like why do you do that it's intriguing to me let's talk about it so you go to this thing every Tuesday like tell me more about that what do you scene songs is a like youth camp like what do you do there two guys named Shane it's weird so tell me more so tell me more about this this Jesus so you think he's going to take you through the grave into eternal life so you won't have faith in the furnace unless you have faith that Jesus endured a worse furnace for you that in the Garden of Gethsemane as he sweat blood facing the cross that that was done for you that he died the death that you deserve and he did it for you so that you could be with him forever not because of your works but because you believe that he paid the price for you to enter God's kingdom through his death and his resurrection and you begin to live out that faith and it's weird I've seen it happen I've got to run with you guys for about a decade now and every now and then there's someone that just stands out kind of like meant that that guy or that girl they get it and this one individual before I ever met him I had heard of him because I heard how he was a Division one athlete how he was a starter a team lead and I heard how he continued to courageously live out his faith before I ever met him I heard how he chose not to laugh at the inappropriate jokes in the locker room how he tried or he didn't try to fit in with the bad language that the other guys were saying that he chose not to treat the other freshmen teammates poorly to get a laugh from his coach or his teammates and I heard I had heard specifically about how he was made fun of because of the decisions that he made and how he wasn't invited to the parties and as he was a strong good-looking young man with a lot of things going for him he had been rejected by some of his classmates and some of his teammates and of course as an athlete and a good-looking guy and a starter and a team leader you know some girls gave him a lot of attention some girls that really matters too and so you know they were willing to come up to him and swoon for him and and he had made a commitment to treat them different in fact he saw it as an opportunity to minister to his teammates in the way that he talked to them and spent time with them and the way that he was intentional about what he did and didn't do with those girls in a one particular occasion and this was the story that I was like man I've got to meet this guy his position coach you played football his position coach had come to his teammates and said hey I want you to begin I want you to bring some violent images and we're going to put them on this wall to kind of cast a vision for us to be tough and violent and aggressive out there you guys bring the most violent images you can and so his teammates begin to bring crime scenes and pictures of mutilation and pictures of genocide and and some of the most grotesque images that you can imagine he didn't do that the coach pulled him aside as as you know this the players got excited about this little exercise this homework if you will and go say hey I need you to bring an image and when his time went on and he didn't coach came to him again and said hey I'm serious about this assignment in the third time that he was inquired about this assignment he brought a picture and he says this is the most violent image I can think of coach it's a picture of Jesus Christ being crucified on the cross it's a scene from The Passion and this is when all of my sins went on him and so this is the most violent image I can imagine let's put this on the wall this countercultural was uncompromising and that this coast that didn't like him very much said man that's really convicting let's have a conversation and my my friend got to share the gospel with him got to walk him through how he can have a relationship with Christ real faith converts critics it may not happen right away but you stay strong it's your ability to make it through the furnace will be in direct relation to the amount of faith you have that Jesus went through the furnace for you how you doing right now you got to answer the questions you have a real faith you and you're going all-in with Christ does he influence how you date what you do on the weekends how you talk who you hang out with your playmates and your playground is that the scariest thing in the world to you right now I don't do anything don't tell me to change my friends like that's that's a terrifying thought JP you know that's my story came to a place with a match can't do that can't do like Louisville every weekend I can't do lower Greenville anymore guys I'm out God's calling me to something better there's a story that kind of illustrates this going all-in it's about a guy in the 1800s his name is blond Dean in the 1800's they didn't have you know stadiums and TVs to watch for entertainment and so the circus circus acts was a way that everyone would gather around crowds would gather and people would be entertained and so this particular man blonde Dean from Paris he was a tightrope walker and his most famous feat was he walked 1,100 feet across Niagara Falls on a tight walk he was the first person ever to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope and when he did it I mean the crowds from Canada and America came around and gathered and would go crazy and to watch this guy and just like us you know to be entertained you got to keep making it crazier and crazier and so he would do it on stilts he did it blindfolded he did it one day where he cooked an egg out there and ate an omelet in the middle of the the tightrope over Niagara Falls and on this one particular day as as thousands of people gathered around he pushed a wheelbarrow across it blindfolded and the wheelbarrow was full of concrete 350 pounds of concrete and he pushed it to the other side and he emptied it out and he began to interact with the crowds as he often does and and he says do you guys believe I can walk across this rope and they said you can you're the great blonde Dean we know you can and he said do you believe that I can can do with this wheelbarrow they said yes you can you're the great blondie and he said do you believe that I can can push someone across the tightrope in this wheelbarrow and they said yes you're the great blondie and of course you can and there was one particularly enthusiastic fan right there front and center and he said what about you do you believe I can push someone across this tightrope in the wheelbarrow and he said of course the crowds got silence as this dialogue happy said of course you're the great blonde Dean I've seen you do it I know you can you said great get in the wheelbarrow and the crowds listened as the man refused said I can't do that and it's such a picture of so many of us praising God worshipping with the crowd we love you Jesus thank you for dying on the cross thank you for paying for our sins we have so much faith in you we have so much faith in you he says hey great put your life in my hands date how I desire you to date hang out and fellowship in a way that honors me have conversations that honor me can I have the time that you spend on your computer can I control for the sake of your own freedom the way you dress and who you hang out with and what you find identity in and how you spend your money and where you work and what you do for fun and whom you love no Jesus we just want to be with the fans don't call us to anything Jesus I have a faith don't make me use it Jesus I don't want to go through the furnace Jesus I have a faith I hope I never have to use it Jesus don't call me to stand out they're going to make fun of me I'm going to be left alone Jesus it's interesting and I didn't know this when I first heard the story but blonde Dean's manager eventually did go across that rope with him and I find it ironic because he had spent the most time with him he had seen that he had done it the most and had the most faith in his ability and so of course he said hey I'm willing and that's what God is calling you to right now I hope some of you are tired of playing the Christian games I hope right now as you sit in the CC you can't decide how you're going to date when you're in the hotel room when you're in the backseat when you're in your apartment alone that's not when you say okay now how far am I going to go right now you say hey Jesus you got my celibacy man I'm the 40 year old virgin it's all good make a movie about me it's all good hey Jesus I'm not attracted to the same sex doesn't seem fair I think you're gonna change that in me but even if you don't I'm not going to compromise I'll die celibate go to heaven inherit your kingdom hashtag winning let's go you ready you ready to go all-in with Christ he's not making you get up the crow get up on the cross he got up on the cross for you but he's asking you to carry it let me pray that you would father in the midst of blazing hot furnace strengthen our resolve to cry out to a watching world that may hate us to burn us up give us the courage to stand out give us the courage to take up a cross tomorrow and we wake up in our office in our relationship and all that we do father help us to worship you help us to give our entire lives and existence and everything for you would you create not an audience of this place but an army to march against everything that is wicked in our culture to stand for truth and would you help us to do that winsome ly and lovingly with compassion and grace and then the midst of the fiery challenges of this life give us the faith to scream out burn us up

Channel: The Porch

Views: 34,105

Rating: 4.8018866 out of 5

Keywords: Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, faith, Daniel 3, porchdallas, porch

Id: jEZViHH6dZ4

Length: 50min 9sec (3009 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 11 2016