Live Free with Josh Howerton - The Light From Within | Ep. 436 | Monday, October 7, 2024

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

In the Book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar takes young Israelite men captive to serve in Babylon. Despite being captives, they remain devoted to God and demonstrate integrity, respect, and kindness. In chapter 3, King Nebuchadnezzar builds a 90-foot gold statue for worship, leading Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to refuse to bow down out of loyalty to God despite the risk involved. These three men exemplify courage, faith, and devotion to the one true God while serving under challenging circumstances. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive, where we spend just a few minutes each weekday walking through God's Word together. My name is Bro, and it is officially fall. I'm sitting here right now with this steaming cup of coffee that's some kind of cinnamon pumpkin thing.

And it smells so good. And maybe you're doing the same type of thing, or maybe you're working out, or you're on your way to school or on the way to work. Thanks for joining us on the Daily Drive. Last week, we looked at a simple farmer turned Ninja Warrior named Gives. who against all odds was used in a powerful way by God. It's an incredible story. It's found in the Old Testament book of Judges. And this week we're going to hang in the first few chapters

of the Old Testament book of Daniel. And we're going to see the story of some guys who made it through when things got super intense and the heat literally got turned up. Let me just give you some historical background before we jump into the story. In 605 BC, the year I graduated from high school, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon overwhelms Jerusalem and takes a bunch of their very best

teenage guys captive and enrolls them along with the young promising Babylonian guys in the King's Leadership Academy. These Jewish guys were given new names, new identities, and forced to learn a new culture, a new language, introduced to a whole bunch of new, so-called

little G. gods. Four of the most notable was a guy named Daniel and his three buddies, Hananiah, who was renamed Shadrach, Michiel, who was renamed Meshach, Azariah, who was renamed Abednego. Now, if you grew up watching Veggie Tales, then you know they renamed them, Rack, Shack, and Benny. And their story is so rich. With the thing that jumps out to me is even though Rack Shack and Benny have been taken captive by a completely godless and pagan nation,

they refused to allow their souls to be taken captive. They refuse to buy into the cultural standards that would compromise their devotion to God. And they just consistently honored God, even though they were far from home. Even though they were far from having their dream job. They just worked hard. They treated other people with kindness and respect. They served with integrity. They didn't gripe about being there.

They just kind of bloomed where they were planted. And as a result, their excellent lives set them apart from all the others. And all of them, Daniel, Rack, Jack, and Benny were all elevated to high. high positions in the kingdom, and they made a huge difference right there in the middle of Babylon. Now, King Nebuchadnezzar was something else. The only thing that extended beyond the borders of his vast kingdom was his immense ego. If you want to see a lesson in humility and how God can humble the proud, read chapter four

of the book of Daniel. We might even go there on the podcast, but I guarantee it's one of those lessons you'll want to learn from reading the book and not having to experience it in your own life. But look how chapter 3 begins in this story. King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue 90 feet tall, that's like a nine-story building, and nine feet wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Now Nebuchadnezzar was hoping to use this huge statue to solidify his majesty and his power

by centralizing the people's worship. So he sends out this decree that says, When you hear the band start to play, everybody. And I'm talking everybody. is to stop whatever they are doing during the day and bow down and worship my image. And he attached a warning that said, Anyone who refuses to do so

will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. Talk about an ego trip. Bow to my image or things are going to get heated up really quick. Verse 7. So at the sound of the musical instruments, all the people, whatever their race or nation or language, bowed to the ground and worshipped the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Now, most people in Babylonian culture were polytheists,

where they worshipped many gods. I mean, here a god, there a god, everywhere a god, God, so no big deal to stop and bow the knee to yet another god, especially under the threat of capital punishment. But it was a big deal to some who worshipped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Yahweh, Elohim, the great I am. the Lord of all creation, the one and only true living God. I don't know who said it before, but I wrote it in the margin of my Bible there in the book of Daniel.

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Let me read that again. It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. You see, quite a few years it passed since Shadrach, Meishak and Abedigo showed up as high school students from Judah. They were men now, grown men who held high positions in Babylon. And these are guys who would have had ample time to get well adjusted to their profoundly sick society. Years to choose just to conform, just fit in and go with the flow. Years to fade in their relationship with God. Years to feel like their old God was no longer relevant to the new lives that they now led in their

new culture. But not so. Verse 8. But some of the astrologers, the officials, went to the king, and informed, tattled on the Jews. They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, Long live the king. You issued a decree requiring all the people to bow down and worship the gold statue when they hear the sound of the musical instruments. That decree also states

just reminding you that those who refuse to obey must be thrown into a blazing furnace. Well, there are some Jews, namely Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedigo, whom you have put in charge of the province of Babylon. They have defied your majesty by refusing to serve your gods or to worship the gold statue you have set up.

Now, I want you to notice that these guys were some officials tattling on some of the Jews. This is not like a class action suit against the whole group of people, because I'm guessing there were other Jews, including Daniel, who didn't bow down either, but they weren't turned in. So what's going on here? Did you catch the phrase when they said, but there are some Jews, namely Shadrach, Mishak and Abinigo,

whom you have put in charge of the province of Babylon. So what's going on here? They don't care about the statue. I mean, what's another god? They just want these guys out of the way so they could get their jobs. See, in Chapter 1, all these guys were in this leadership academy together. Daniel and these three stood out among all the rest of these guys,

and as a result, they're the ones that got promoted along with Daniel. And they were lowly exiled foreigners for crying out loud. This was just professional jealousy. And I just bet that there are some of you right now on the receiving end of jealousy. Someone doesn't like you because you got the promotion, or you got the job, or you got the raise, or you made the team, or you made the squad, or you were named an all-star. Or maybe you're the professor's favorite,

or you've got a scholarship for next year. Or maybe you seem to do everything so effortlessly. You've got a great girlfriend. You've got a great boyfriend. Or your family gets to go on nice vacations, or you have a nicer house, a newer car, and your kids are doing awesome. And right now someone is looking at you through the green-eyed monster of envy,

just hoping, wishing that something would happen to take you down and raise them up. And they may make comments about you behind your back or post negative things on social media or go to HR and try to sabotage your efforts or poison your reputation, or try to turn your friends, your coworkers, even your family against you.

Do you know why the religious leaders handed Jesus over to the Romans to be crucified? Here's what Scripture says. It was for envy that they delivered him up. I've taught this definition of envy before in this podcast. Envy is resenting God's goodness in someone else's life

while ignoring his goodness in mind. Envy is the sinister thing that can suddenly creep into your spirit. And if you know, even as I'm talking, there's a little bit of that in your heart right now, you've got to let God surgically remove that. Before the cancer spreads and the

destroys you and a whole bunch of other people. And if it's happening to you right now, I hope you'll find some courage in the rest of this story. So I want you to picture in your minds, the planes of Dura. I want you to picture all the officials, all the people, waiting for their cue, and when the band starts to play, the horizon goes flat. Everyone, everyone is bowing down to Nebuchadnezzar's image of gold. Now just imagine the silhouette of that moment.

Three guys are standing up, among the men. many that were bowing down, and all three were standing at the risk of their own lives. You know, I love this line from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within. And these three guys, they had light from within, because they walked with the true and living God.

And there was no way they were going to be affected by the people. the darkness they were living in. So I'm praying for you today, that you would be a light, and that light would come from within. Come on back tomorrow, and we will pick up the story right here. Hope you have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about all the digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.

dot church slash daily drive. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out.