The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: In the Fire

Episode Date: December 15, 2019

The promise of God’s presence will be the power to persevere in the pain. - I know that He is able to _________. - I am believing that He will __________. And even if He doesn’t, I will worship Him alone.

Amen and amen. Merry Christmas church. Hope you well. That's kind of intense, isn't it? For Christmas? Well, it's going to set us up good. Hey, Merry Christmas. We are in week three of this series that we're studying. We call, Behold our King. It's about Christophanes. That's just a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, because what I want us to do is the church is be prepared on Christmas Day to behold our king. Because while it is true that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity was born in. among us and humbled himself in the form of a baby in a manger. He does not say a baby in a manger. He's our Savior. A Messiah. He died on the cross. He's resurrected. Currently, he's sitting at the right hand of God the Father. And one day, he will establish his kingdom. He'll crack open in the heavens. A trumpet will blast and he will turn with like tattoos and swords. It's going to be awesome. And so we have to be ready. Now, last week, well, let me just say this. Thank you for all the

Christmas cards this week. If you weren't here last week, I talked. about the insecurity and ego of Joshua, and I said there's nothing that illustrates ego and insecurity at Christmas like the modern-day Christmas card, all right? And so I got about 600 of them this week, and so because it brings out insecurity because you've got to decide what picture to use and do I look good in this one, and every time you determine whether a picture is good or not, you're only looking at you, that's just true. And so, and then also the thing that brings out the insecurity is like, who do you send one to? You bought a box of 100, but you've got 111 people on your list. And then, sure enough, right after you send them out, somebody sends you one,

and you're like, now we've got to send them one. Okay, so there's all this insecurity. And it also highlights our ego, because nothing, nothing says ego like, you know what would bless you? A picture of me and my family. Here it is. Okay, so. And I said, don't send me one, so I got about 600 this week. Thank you very much. Now, I have a new favorite Christmas card that came here to the church to me, addressed to me, and I opened it right before 722. These are the Schroeder's. The Schroeder's go to church. church with us and it is not just a Christmas card it is like a book of the story of how their family is better than your family and here are the pictures to prove it I love it man uh I didn't get their

permission so whatever this is public record right but they did put the words to it is well with my soul in here and so I love that song I think that's awesome here's what makes this card my favorite card. It's not this side of the card. On the back side of the card, you can tell they've been listening in the sermons, because they said there's more to life and the holiday cards than picture perfect moments. And here's kind of the rest of the story of their year. Here is a picture of their little girl, Hallie, who is having a temper tantrum. Her face isn't even in the photo. It's just legs, okay? Here's another picture where they say we may not be parents of the year during Hurricane Dorian, we did not evacuate.

We let our daughter ride and her bike, and we walked around sipping martinis, examining the damage. If that offends you, you should just leave now, save yourself so much pain, because that's my favorite part. And then here is their three-year-old daughter on the way to the ER because she fell out of the hammock during her three-year-old birthday party. All right? Now, that's an 1122 Christmas car.

Amen? Now, so if you are having a very merry Christmas, God bless you and your family and your presence and praise God. But if your life is more like this side of the Christmas card, that's what we're talking about today. That's why we're going to talk about Daniel chapter 3 because Christmas brings out intensified joy and pain. Amen? I mean, it does. It just tends to highlight the joys in our life or highlight the pains in our life.

Listen, man, when I think Christmas, my mind automatically goes back to when I was a kid, and we did Christmas at Mert's house. Mert is my grandma, but there was 12 of them. So if you just said, Grandma, where I grew up, 12 women with casseroles would come at you. So we had to call them all by name. Her middle name's Mertl, I called her Mert. And, man, I had these incredible moments of joy there. Santa Claus thought we lived at her house, so that's where we had to go to get our stuff.

All right? I got a motorcycle when I was a kid. I've told you about this. Crunk it up in her living room. Home women. And she came out of her bedroom with like curlers and green face. You know, it's crazy. All right?

I got my second car. My first car was the 79 murky marquee. Google that for a second. But then I got my second car. It was a 66 Mustang. Santa Claus brought to me. I did a donut in Mertz yard. All right.

I have all of these incredible memories of us being together and caught my aunt's house on fire one time. All kind of stuff right there. But as of this week, we ain't doing Christmas at Mert's house anymore. My dad put Mert in the nursing home. assisted living facility this week. Now, that's not a tragedy, but it's sad. And listen, man, those facilities can be like a real blessing from God. Those folks that work there can, like a calling to help families transition.

But man, my dad's old school. So he's having a real hard time with it because he's stubborn and he's bold and brass and he's pig-headed and he thinks he's always right. And I am his son. But it was for sure the best decision for her and him, but he's having this really, really hard time. And I called him up to check on him that day they dropped her off and settled her in. And for the first time in my whole life, I heard my dad cry. For the first time ever.

So Christmas is going to be different for him, right? We ain't going to be at Merck's house this year. And so for a lot of you, that's your Christmas this year. What do you do when you're in the fire? And Christmas this year ain't so merry. Daniel chapter 3. Daniel chapter 3. Let me give you a little bit of context before we dive in so you can understand what's happening.

In 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, takes over Israel. Now, God had promised Israel, if you're faithful, I will keep my hand of protection upon you. But if you worship idols, lest you forget, I will take my hand off of you. Israel never handled blessing well, and so she's off the rails again. And so God allows them to be taken over by Bavis. led by King Nabokanezer. Now, Nabokanezor's plan was subjugation by assimilation. He wasn't just going to wipe out all the Israelites. He wasn't even going to make them all slaves. He took the best of the best of the best. The governmental leaders, the religious leaders,

he took the gifted, the Ivy League, you know, the UGA grads. He took that kind of group of people, and he would bring them to Babylon. And basically, what he wanted to do was indoctrinate them into the Babylonian way so that they would be the ones that would influence their culture to believe that now we need to sort of reject where we came from and be a part of Babylon. And so he took four very famous young men, Daniel Shadrake and Mechak and Abed to go. And again, he dressed them in Babylonian clothes, played them Babylonian music, and gave them the king's food. This is why in Daniel chapter 1, Daniel says, look, man, I'll do your haircut, I'll wear you Adidas, but I am not going to defile myself by eating of the king's food. and he came up with this terrible diet fast that we do every year where we only do vegetables and water. Amen?

Okay, so Daniel made that up. And then shortly after that, and God blessed him because of his faithfulness and obedience. And then shortly after that, King Nebuchadnezzar has this crazy dream. And so he gets together all of the magicians and says, all right, if you really do have these supernatural powers and tell me about my dream, and they say, well, you've got to tell us a dream. And he's like, no, no, no, because if you have this skill, I don't even have to tell you the dream.

and nobody can interpret his dream. And so he's like, well, I'm going to kill all y'all. And so they said, ha, we know this guy named Daniel, and his God has his hand on that dude. So they bring Daniel in, and Daniel interprets the dream. And so then King Nebuchadnezzar makes him like senior VP of Babylon. He's in charge of a whole bunch of stuff. And on his way up, with his promotion,

Nebrichonazer says, is there anything I can do for you? And he said, yeah, I got three roommates. Shadrach and Abindigo, that wasn't their name. But I got these three roommates, and could you elevate them too? and so he does. Nebracnezzar puts them in charge of the affairs of Babylon. And then shortly after this, speaking of ego, Nebuchadnezzar makes this, comes up with this idea, says, I'm going to build this huge golden statue in the middle of town.

And whenever you hear the music play, wherever you are in the town, no matter what you are doing, you've got to bow down and worship this idol. So that's the context leading up to Daniel chapter 3, beginning of verse 8. It says, therefore. So the therefore is everything I just said. Therefore, at that time, certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. And they declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever. You, O. King, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn and the pipe and the liar and the trigon and the harp and the bagpipe and every kind of music shall fall down and worship.

And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. and there are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, and he gives us their name, Shadirak, Mishak, and Abednego, these men, O king, they pay you no attention, and they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Now, before we go any farther, just know this, that Nebuchadnezzar had changed these men's names. Their Jewish names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azaya. And basically what it means is God is gracious, God is good, and God is our helper. And he wipes out those names about the one true God, and he gives them the name Shatter at Mesh

and Abindigo, which all circulate around this moon god that was worshipped in Babylon. Now, I point that out just to say this. This world tries to change your name. This world wants to label you by your economic situation, by your race, by your political affiliation, by your marital status, or by your habits, by your addiction, by your past, by your sin. Because we live in a world that wants to slap a label on you to try, because it's easier to handle a label. And it does not want to deal with the fact that every single one of you, every individual,

is an image bearer of God. And this world does not get to tell you who you are. In fact, you're not your past, you're not your sin, you're not your marital status, you're not your orientation, you're not your race. primarily who you are, primarily who you are, if you were in Christ, is the king of kings and the Lord of Lords looked at you and calls you his son or his daughter. Don't you let anybody tell you who you are, only Jesus gets to tell you who you are? Then Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage commanded that Shadrach Meshach and Abed to Go be brought. And so they brought these men before

the king, and Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, is it true, O Shadrach to bed to go, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up. Now, if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn and the pipe and the lyre and the trigon and the harp and the bagpipe and every kind of music to fall down and worship the image that I have made well and good. You see, basically, Nebuchadnezzar is trying to give them another chance because he has invested a whole bunch in their subjugation by assimilation. This is the equivalent of the mama at Walmart counting a three. I'm going to count to three. Okay, that's what he's doing.

But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. And then this next question, got to pay attention to it. And who is the God, little T, little G, see that? Who is the God who will deliver you out of my hand? Essentially, what Nebuchadnezzar is asking is this. Boys, where are you going to put your faith? Are you going to put your faith in this invisible God that seems to just kind of do what he wants when he wants? and sometimes he answers, sometimes he doesn't.

Are you going to put your faith in this invisible God, or are you going to put your trust in the visible king standing right in front of you, and God may or may not show up, but you know what I will do to you. Where are you going to put your faith? Now, here's the thing. Here's the thing about idols.

Idols demand to be worshipped. They just do. Idols demand to be worshipped. And an idol consistently makes promises that it cannot keep. And here's the crazy thing about idols. And when you idolize something and it does not keep its promise, you will demonize that something. And oftentimes it's people. When you idolize somebody and they let you down and they will, then you will demonize them. Because human beings cannot receive the pressure of being an idol because they cannot fulfill all of their promises ever, ever, ever.

because every single one of us by the cross of Jesus Christ has been outed already. And so we live in a world that is full of idols. Now here's the problem with pluralism. You see, Nebuchadnezzar understands that he lives among a whole bunch of different kind of people and there are a whole bunch of different gods. What Nebuchadnezzar was asking is not that they discard the God that they worshipped. He just asked them to privatize the God that they worshipped. You do whatever you want in your apartment.

But when you're in the public square and the music plays, this is what you bow down to. Now, if you don't think we have the same kind of idols in our culture, and when the music plays, we are commanded to bow down, then you've got a long way to go, okay? But we have some serious idols in our culture. It's an idol of comfort. It's an idol of comfort. I mean, make no mistake about it here, man. The first Christmas commercial starts, and every one of us are on Amazon. I mean, we're thinking, I want one of those big bows to give my wife a car.

And I think, what couple buys a car and doesn't talk about that? Who are these kind of people? You understand? And even though we talk about it all the time, the cul-de-sac of stupidity, not that stuff is stupid, but you're stupid because you think stuff can do for you what it didn't do for you last year. But we think this Christmas, the kids are going to actually be grateful. Are you dumb? The answer? Yes.

Yes. And it's not just our dumb kids? It's us. We think, if I just, if I take out this refrigerator that works, but I put in that refrigerator with a different color that works, then she'll be fully and finally satisfied us. I'm telling you, I honestly think it is one of the biggest blind spots in modern Christianity. I think hundreds of years from now Christians will look back at us the way we look back at slave owners and think, how could you even know Jesus and do that? I really believe hundreds of years from now, people will look back at us and be like, wait a minute, there were billions of people around the world that didn't have the gospel, and billions of people around the world that didn't have food,

and the Christians spent all their money on themselves, the music plays, and we bow down. If you clap, you're just condemning you. I'm talking about you. I think another idol is the applause of man. We bow down for the approval of others. It's why you're going to go to Christmas parties that you don't want to go to. You don't want to go. You're already busy.

You got your PJs on and then you're like, oh, we got that party. Well, we have to go because I care more about what those people think than anything else. Listen, we wake up every day and we immediately look for approval and how many likes we have. This cannot be good for our soul. For the first time in human history, everybody with a smartphone has a platform. Do you realize nobody knew what your grandma had for dinner? Like when she was growing up, the only people that knew what she was eating were the people at the table eating with her. And yet we are so into ourselves, we have to take it. Look at what I'm eating.

Does you think people care? Another one, this is the big one. The music plays and our world bows down to our desires. I do what I want with who I want, when I want. And I don't care what anybody says. You can't put that law on me. I don't care what God thinks. I don't care what that book says. I don't even care what science says and my genetics say. My feelings are the thing that rules and how dare you stand up against my feelings when the music plays, you better bow down. It is the air that we breathe. You see, we live in a culture that demands that we bow down to the idol, I don't know what to call it, the idol of tolerance.

It is, it is. If you are labeled as an intolerant person in our world, it is like the worst of the worst of the worst of the worst. And the music plays and everyone is to bow down and listen to me, tolerance is not a biblical value. we have not been called to tolerate one another. We have not been called to coexist. I coexist with a raccoon that lives in the woods behind my house.

We have been called by the scriptures through the gospel of Jesus Christ to not just coexist and tolerate one another. We have been called to love one another, especially people that don't vote like you or look like you or think like you and people that will never, ever, ever believe like you, even if they oppose you, the job is not to tolerate them, but to love them. That's what we've been called to do. But in all world, it's crazy. We're supposed to bow down to tolerance, and yet the ones preaching tolerance will not tolerate you

if you differ from them. You can't make this stuff up. Rick Warren says this. Rick Warren, if you don't know him, he pastors a little country church out in California. He says, our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, you must fear them or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. And I'm telling you, this is the big golden idol in our society. And when the music plays, if you don't bow down, you will be punished.

Now, I probably shouldn't do this, but whatever, I'm going to do it anyway. So about two months ago or something, you know, your phone tells you what news you should believe, right? Yours pushes yours to you too? It does, man. It's the Luminati. I don't know who's behind it, but they're into it. So my little news feed thing pops up. And three stories back to back to back were on my phone one morning.

And when I looked at it, it's all about culture. And it looked like a parable that Jesus would tell. Jesus often taught parables in three. See Luke 15, see Matthew chapter 25. And the three things that came up on my phone were this. Number one is that Kanye got saved and started Sunday services and came out with a new album. Okay. Now, I don't know if you're into Kanye.

I'm like a Johnny Cash guy. Now, let me tell you the evangelical response to Kanye claiming Jesus has his Savior. The evangelical response is, we'll see. We'll see. And I looked at that, and I thought, we got some random guy on the third row, and all you do is raise your hand, and we celebrate. Welcome, Ted, to the kingdom of heaven, and we celebrate and go crazy. But this man claims Jesus, starts Sunday services,

and makes a record called Jesus is king. He's got a song on there about Chick-fil-A. How can it be bad? Close on Sunday, you my Chick-fil-A. I call Reagan now, my number one with a lemonade. I'm into it. And the evangelical response is, big brother. We'll see.

It's like they're just waiting for him to mess up. Is it going to mess up? Didn't you mess up? I mean, he's been a Christian a minute. Can the grace apply to you, apply to this brother? Is he, I mean, they're just waiting for him to say something doctrinally off a little bit so it'll rhyme. Aren't you glad that your pastor and elders and deacons and Sunday school teachers didn't just watch you right after you got saved and just wait to pounce on you? The evangelical response is, we'll see.

Okay, right behind it. This is one that's going to get me in trouble. I don't know if I should do it. There's a very famous pastor out in California. He's brilliant. He writes commentaries. He writes study Bibles. He's been a Christian for like 600 years.

His initials are John MacArthur. So, again, man, he's brilliant. He really is so smart. You should watch his YouTube video of him being interviewed by Ben Shapiro and watch him share the gospel of Ben Shapiro. It's brilliant. He's doing a conference. And at his conference, somebody asked him,

what do you think about Beth Moore? Now, if you don't know who Beth Moore is, and a lot of 1122 is known. Beth Moore is this incredible Bible teacher. She's been teaching the Bible. She's not as old as MacArthur. She's 300, okay? She's been teaching it forever.

These Bible studies all over the place, incredibly gifted. And in the conference, he's asked, what do you think about Bethmore? And here's how he responds. First words, he goes, go home. Then he goes on to equate her skills with a QVC salesperson.

That's it. No. Regardless of where you stand on complementarianism and egalitarianism. And if you don't know what those words mean, glory, okay? But it was just rude. It was just absolutely rude.

And the Bible says that love is not rude. And the Bible says that love is patient and love is kind. And I thought, what is going on when this prominent Bible teacher is just rude to somebody? And of all people, Beth Moore? You know, we tell you what? I think about, here's what comes to mind when I think Beth Moore. Saturated. Let's get her in here and let her preach here, right here, from ladies' accessories, all right?

It's facts. So the first news feed is about evangelical's response to Kanye. Big Brother, we'll see. The second one is this prominent Bible teacher, just being rude to a sister in Christ. The third one, Ellen DeGeneres and W. were at a ballgame together. Remember this? Somebody took a picture of Ellard and DeGeneres and George W. Bush at, I think, a Cowboys game. So you can question their decision-making ability, all right? But we're the jags, so whatever. We're going to be first in heaven. I can guarantee you that, all right? Last on earth first in heaven, crown that will last forever. And the crazy thing is, is that the tolerant crowd blast Ellen for just being with this man who is on the other side of the aisle has political differences than she does, doctrinal differences than she does.

And she answers this way. Apparently at the end of her show, I don't watch it because I have a job, but honestly I'm a huge fan, man. She's an incredible communicator, so smart, talented. And she said, at the end of my show, when I say be kind, I don't just mean to people that you agree with. Okay. So in our culture of tolerance, you've got, of those three, you've got two proficient Christians, right? The evangelical world, this Bible teacher, and then one who does not claim to be a Jesus follower. But in my humble, little less than humble opinion, the most Christ-like answer was from Ellen.

Say love is patient and love is kind. You see, if you don't get a bloody nose every once in a while from bumping into this culture, it could be because the music is played and you've already bowed down. If you don't feel a significant pressure to go against a flow and to fight upstream against this culture that is trying to drive us somewhere, it could be because you just quit and you are going with the flow. John Piper says this, this world does not need any more culturally savvy Christian. It needs exiles that smell like heaven and have the aroma of Christ. Amen?

When this world plays the music and calls us to bow down, we will not bow down to those idols. What we should do is love. So let me ask you, where are you bowing down? Are you doing money the way the world says do money or sex or truth or approval or are you settling for tolerance instead of being in exile in this world by loving one another? So our culture commanding us to bow down is just as prevalent today as it is in Daniel 3. Well, Shadrachmi Shadababana go, they answered and they said to the king, old Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. Now I want you to underline these next two verses. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.

And he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. You see, this is true faith. They're saying we are not putting our faith in our circumstances or your approval that we are trusting our sovereign God. Here's what they know. They know that they are eternally fireproof, whether they're physically fireproof or not. That we're going to come back to this. But what if you saw every fire that you walked into with this kind of perspective?

If God, I know that you were able to do whatever it is that you want to do, and I am believing that you were going to in this moment, but even if you don't, I'm not bowing down to the idols of this world. I'm choosing to worship you and you alone. This is the stance that they take. And then Nebuchadnezzar is filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed to get Shadrach and Meshach and abed and ago. And he ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated. and he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach Mishak and Abednego. And to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound, that's the second time, in their cloaks and tunics and their hats and other garments.

The Bible wants you to know they are very flammable. And they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace was overheated, the flame of the fire, killed those men who took up Shadrach Mishak and Abednego. and these three men, Shadrach Moushach and Abedigo, fell bound into the burning firey furnace. Three times so far the Bible wants us to know that they are bound. Bind, bound, bound. When God repeats himself thrice, you should pay attention.

And then King Nabokanezer was astonished, and he rose up in haste, and he declared to his counselors, did we not cast the three men bound into the fire? That's the fourth time. and they answered and said to the king, True, O king, and he answered and said, but I see four men, what's that word? Unbound. Walking in the midst of the fire,

and they are not hurt, and then here's our Christophany, our pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods. Now, again, Nebuchadnezzar, like many of the people quoted in the Bible so far, they have a hard time getting the exact right language to describe what they're seeing. He's like a God, he's like a man.

He's maybe like an angel, like a messenger, but he's also like a man. It literally in the Hebrew, it says, and the fourth is like a son of Elohim, which is a name that the Old Testament uses for God. And then Nebuchadnezzar came near the door of the burning fiery furnace, and he declared Shadrachach and Abendigo, servants of the capital M, most, capital H, high, capital G, God. His original question is, who is the little G. God that can do anything?

Now, when he sees their fate and he sees the appearance of Jesus, it changes, and now he says, service of the most high God. Come out and come here. And then Shadrach, Mishak and abed to go, came out from the fire and the satraps and the prefects and the governors and the kings' counselors gathered together, and they saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of the men. The hair of their heads wasn't singed. Their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire. had come upon them. If I smoke a cigar, Gresson can smell it for like four days, okay? This is a miracle.

Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach Meshach had Abindigo, who has sent his angel, not an angel. Again, he searched him for the right terminology to try to describe what we wouldn't be able to fully describe until Jesus shows up at the incarnation, who sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except their own God. Then he makes this decree, and this is how we understand. He didn't fully surrender to Jesus. He doesn't understand. He goes, well, I'll tell you what, anybody worships any other God, I'll rip your arms off. So that never really works. And then he says this, which is important,

for there is no God who is able to rescue in this way. What Nebuchadnezzar is doing, I don't know if he knows he's doing it or not, but he is pointing to the uniqueness of the gospel. Listen, every religion deals with the solution for what do you do when you're in the fire. And almost every religion says, here's how you build your ladder to get yourself out of the fire. Now, Buddhism will say there is no fire. To which if you're in it, you're like, kind of feels like a fire, okay? But the gospel, Christianity, is the only message that says that God meets. us in the fire. Not our good works. Get us out the fire so he is absolutely right. There is no other

God that rescues this way. I want to give you five observations about the fire. Five observations about the fire. And I am obviously talking about the fires of our life. Number one, you and I will face fires. Do not be surprised. I don't know what it is about our Western culture, but there's something about our Americanism that we believe, if we're decently, good people, then we should be free from pain. And it is just not the experience of any human, of all eternity. And I think a big bunch of the pain that we experience when we walk through the fires is that we are surprised as if fires were never going to get to us. Look, Jesus is very clear. He says, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have

tribulation. Think about those two things shouldn't make sense together. I'm about to tell you how to have peace. In this world, your circumstances are going to bring lots of pain, but take heart for I have overcome the world. Listen, either you're coming out of a fire, currently you're in the fire, or Merry Christmas, the fire is around the corner. It's just true. It's just true. And people ask, why, why, why, why do we face these kind of fires? There's at least four reasons. Number one, we live in a broken world. We just live in a broken world. When sin invaded our world, it fractured the whole thing.

From cancer to car wrecks, tragedy happens. From weather systems down to the cellular level, we live in a world of chaos, infected and affected by sin, and Jesus has come. And one day, he will make all things new. But until that day, we live in a broken world. sometimes the reason we walk in fire is because of our very own sin and or stupidity. It's just, we brought this on us. I can't tell you the number of times. People at our church come to me and say, pastor, the devil is just attacking me.

Why would God let the devil attack me? All right, where, where? What's going on in your life? Well, you know, I keep buying stuff I don't have money for and I've reached my limit on my credit card so I use this other credit card to pay it off and the devil is attacking me. I'm like, baby, you to devil. That's what's going on right now. Sometimes, sometimes somebody else sinned against us.

Somebody else violated God's law against us, and it's the reason, you didn't start the fire, but you are in it. And sometimes it is demonic attack. It is. Whether it's a like sniper fire right at you from the devil or it's collateral damage from the fall. but the thing that you have to remember the crazy thing about the sovereignty of God is only God could use even the schemes of the enemy or other people's sin or your very own sin to accomplish his purposes. You see, this is why Joseph in Genesis chapter 50 would say what you intended for evil, God intended for good. There will be fires. Number two, for the believer, fire is refining.

For the believer, fire is refining. First Peter says it this way in chapter 1, verse 6 and 7. In this, you rejoice, though for now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire. When you pick gold into fire, the impurities burn away. may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is why James would say, consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kind.

These brothers are thrown bound into the fire. The only thing that the fire burns is the binding of this world. Sometimes by the sovereign hand of God, he allows us to walk through fire to burn away the things. things that have us shackled to this world. Number three, sometimes God saves us from the fire, like miraculously, and he brings you out and you don't even smell like smoke. Most often he saves us through the fire. C.S. Lewis says we can ignore even pleasure, but pain insists upon being attended to. You hear that? But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasure.

He speaks in our conscience, but he shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. You see, the fire for the believer, drives us deeper and deeper and deeper into our dependence upon Jesus. What kind of prayers are these guys praying the day they're getting thrown into the fire? It is deeper than the ones that they're praying when everything's going okay. Sometimes we ask, well, how come God's not answering my prayer? Tim Keller says that God answers every prayer exactly the way you would,

if you knew all that he knew. Do you hear that? You should listen to Keller. He's Yoda smart. That you would answer your prayers the exact same way God answers your prayers if you knew everything that God knew. You understand this.

If you're a parent, you understand this. Remember when you took your babies to get some shots and you wish you could explain, you can't even explain to them what's happening in their life? They wake up and they think, today's going to be awesome. And you're like, I don't even have the words to tell you

how not awesome it's about to be. be. You put them in the car and they're thinking, this is going to be cool. We're going to do the park, get some ice cream, we're going to do something fun. And then you go to the doctor. And I remember, man, I remember when our doctor, she goes here. She stabbed my son with a coat hanger looking thing. And he was like, ha ha, looking at me like, why would you? And I was like, that's your mama. I don't even know what that does. You understand? But if he knew what I know, then he would say, yeah, that's probably worth it. Now, we took Reagan. I told you this a few weeks ago. We took Reagan. They stuck her. She didn't even cry. She just sat there.

I was like, how do you don't cry? You don't even know what it is and she didn't cry? And Gress is like, she's going to be a powerful woman. Maybe. Or psycho. I mean, it could be. You know, it's, you don't, like, we got until she's about 18. We might be at graduation going, we're so proud of you or we might be on the news in the front lawn going, turn yourself in.

We love you. Okay, I don't, we'll see. See, we love to quote some Romans 828, right? And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. But you can't quote 28 without keep going into 29. Because we often think the good that he's working towards is like cash and prizes. But the good that he's working towards is this. For those who are called according to his purpose,

for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn or the prototype among many brothers. The good that he is working towards in our circumstances is that we, might be conformed into the image of his son. And oftentimes, pain is required. There is no resurrection without a crucifixion. And Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow him. Sometimes God saves us from the fire miraculously.

Most often, in my experience, he saves us through the fire. Fourth observation. Everybody's watching. if you claim to be a Jesus follower, they're not paying a whole lot of attention to your successes, quite honestly. But everybody's paying attention to how you handle the fire. Because, listen, because if the world thinks, well, if I follow Jesus, then I get cash and prizes.

If I follow Jesus, then it's all Cadillacs and Cotton Candy. Then guess what the real God is? Cadillacs and Cotton Candy. and then the one true God just becomes a mean to our own end for our own glory. And God will not be a tool in the hand of an idolater. He will not. But you let it go south for you. You let somebody accuse you at work of something that's not true.

You let somebody sin against you. Or even you do something in your life that exposes the reality that you need a Savior. or you let somebody you love die. And again, whether it's cancer or a car wreck or anything in between, and I'm telling you, the eyes of the world are on you. And you know what happens? You see, people look at you and go, how are you handling it? I don't know how you could handle this.

And your answer is, I don't know either. You see, maybe this is why Paul says in the book of Philippians. He says this. he says, be anxious for nothing. It's kind of an audacious thing to say, isn't it? Paul, I don't have money to pay my bills right now. What you mean don't be anxious? Or I promise till death threw us part, and he left.

What you mean don't be anxious? And Paul says, be anxious for nothing. Husbands, it's like this. If your wife gets anxious, be like, hey, hey, hey, don't be anxious. And when she starts to heat up, they're like, whoa, you're overreacting. And what she'll do? She'll calm right down. She'll just calm right down.

Thank you. I appreciate that. The new guys are writing that down. All right. I got it. We'll see you in counseling. No, don't do that. Don't do that.

But that's kind of what it feels like. Paul just says, be anxious. How, Paul? How am I just going to not be anxious when I'm in the fire? Here's how by prayer and supplication. Make your request known to God. And here's the promise. And the peace of God that transcends understanding.

That's how you see parents that have lost a kid and you're like, I don't know how you're making it. And they really, they go, well, they don't use these words. But what they're saying is, I have this peace that transcends understanding. It don't feel okay, but it's going to be okay. All is well, even though my circumstances don't look that way at all. And this God of Peace will guard our hearts, because you better guard your heart, because hope to fire makes the heart sick, and guard our minds in Christ Jesus.

This world is watching. It's watching. This is why Nebuchadnezzar says, Blessed be the God of Shadrach Meshachar to bed and go who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted him and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except their own God. You see, you ever see the cardboard testimony things? We've done it here at our church before where somebody writes their testimony basically in two sentences on two sides of a cardboard and one is like pre-Jesus and you flip it over and it's what Christ has done in their life. A friend of mine's church did this. We've done it before.

This man and woman walk up on the stage, and this woman has a card, and it says, diagnosed with stage four cancer. The guy right next to her, his card says, I am the doctor that gave the diagnosis, atheist, and antagonistic. Then the doctor flips his card over and says, observing her peace and joy in this sickness led me to Jesus. The lady flips her card over, and it simply said, worth it. Worth it.

Now that's a faith. That's a fate that can say, and I know that God is at work in all situations for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. That is the kind of faith that understands that our permanent address is not here on this earth. The world is watching. In my world, I have a very dear friend who's a really famous pastor. He's preached here before last two years ago for saturated. We're part of the Act Sweet and I church planning network together. We go hunting together every other year or so. His name Matt Chandler. And 10 years ago, he was diagnosed with brain cancer and given two years to live. And up into that point, man, everything had been awesome in his life. Everything had been awesome in his life. And he would

always preach the glory of God no matter what. And the moment he got that diagnosis, I'm telling you, the world dialed in to how he would respond. So we sent a team out to his church, the village church, and he's got a word for our church. Check this out. My name is Pastor Matt Chandler. I'm the lead pastor of the village church in Dallas, Texas, and happened to be the president of the Acts 29 Church Planning Network.

It was Thanksgiving morning in 2009, and I'd finished feeding my youngest daughter, Nora, her bottle, while Lauren was preparing dishes in the kitchen to take over to my in-laws that lived just a couple blocks from us, and I was walking back to my chair, and then I woke up in the hospital. The emergency room doctor kind of scooched up a chair next to my bed and just said, hey, you have a mass in your right frontal lobe. You're going to need to go see a surgeon. And so that's how it started. But even after that, we thought, okay, they'll put me on some medicine, they'll watch it, it'll be fine, and we weren't really prepared

for what came next. We got the news that it was anaplastic oligodendro glioma, who grade three, and they gave me two to three years to live. So I could just feel loss and see loss everywhere. And I was just furious with the Lord. And then he met me with kindness. So you can see the scar where they went into the surgery and removed the tumor.

And when it comes to healing and thinking about healing, I'm afraid he can. No, no, he will. But even if he doesn't. Like he's God, I'm not. I know he loves, I can look to the cross and see his affections are on us, his care is on us. And this is just going to be one of those things I don't get to fully understand this side of glory. But that's not going to make me question his power or his goodness and grace or his love for me. Okay, this is, I guess, week two of the vlog. Okay, this is week three or update three. It's me again. I think this is week six. Man, I don't know what week this is. Good afternoon. Sorry about last week. We didn't post a video. What was Audrey? I'm in the day. Well, good morning. Sorry, it's been so long

since we've posted an update. It's hard to believe that we're coming up on one year. And so we've been thinking quite a bit about that. Just the fact that, I mean, I've lost my hair this year, got my hair back. This year has been a ton of things that have happened this year. started to kind of think through some of those things and thank God for his mercies throughout the year, both in the bad news at the beginning of the year and then on into the good news as this year is closing out. It looks like we're clean. And so I have to continue on the regimen of chemo. If I think about the last 10 years and the medicines and the scans and the rhythms, the new normal is what Lauren and I would call it, of life.

post brain cancer. I think that probably the one area of growth that I can feel the most often is an increased capacity for empathy. And I think that's important because one of the key things you see as Jesus heals people is an immense compassion for their suffering. If I think about my life, how I'm spending the days of my life, the hours of my life. I want the village to become an engine that just plants churches and sends missionaries to unreach people groups and plays its role in the kingdom of God. Thank you so much.

We'll continue to, every time we do an MRI, we'll do an update, just kind of let you know what they saw and what they think and what they're saying. And so as of now, thank you. God bless. Look forward to preaching for decades, if the Lord so wills. So thank you.

Hey, if you want a deeper dive into his experience, last weekend he preached at his church, the village church, a sermon called Lessons from the Precipice. I'd encourage you to go listen to it. You see, here's the point. The promise of God's presence will be the power to persevere in the pain. As I was talking to Matt about doing this video for us, one of the things he talked about is the thickness of the presence of God in the lives of his people when they're pain. He's talking about the 18 months of intense chemo that he went through,

and when he was on the floor of his bathroom feeling like he was going to die, that the presence of God was just with him in a way that it had never been before. I said there were five things. Here's the fifth one. Jesus is with you in the fire. He's with you in the fire. He promises never to leave us or to forsake us. If you go to John chapter 11 where Jesus loses one of his dearest friends, Lazarus,

Jesus shows up and he meets. the sisters, Mary and Martha, right where they are. Martha is a type A driven, high D, maybe an eight or three on the enneagram, kind of get it done girl, and he meets her there. And she says, if you'd have just been here, and he has this theological dissertation about the fact that he is the resurrection in the life, and somehow that does something for her soul. And then when he meets Mary, maybe she's a four. She's introverted. She's super emotional, and he just puts his arm around her underneath. He weeps. Just meets them right where they are. Jesus meets us in the fire, but this is so important.

The only way to make it through your fire is that you have to know that Jesus has already endured the ultimate furnace on your behalf. And in the new covenant, post-resurrection with the gift of the spirit in every believer, and in the age of the church, we don't need a Christophany. We don't need this appearance of Jesus in a dream or even some kind of miraculous thing. Do you know why? Because Jesus is here through his body, the church. He said that the church is his body. And so when you find yourself in this pain, bring it to Jesus. And the way you do it in the church is through the people of the church.

And so the way we're going to end is this. Maybe this is why James, Chapter 5, the brother of Jesus, James says, anyone among you sick, anyone among you struggling, call the elders of the church together, anoint with oil, confess your sins to one another, pray for one another, that you might be healed, that the healing is most often found. It's always only found through Jesus, but the way Jesus most often works today showing up in the fire is through your brothers and sisters in Christ. And so I would hope and pray that maybe you would adopt the perspective of Shadrat Meshach had been to go. We're going to put this prayer on the screen.

We're going to leave it up until we're done. And what if you looked at it and you said, God, I know that you were able to, and I left this thing blank because I ain't in your fire. And I got a whole list of stuff here. Maybe it's financial. Maybe it's a broken marriage. Maybe it's a health thing. And I've had people say to me, how do you come up? How do you know where we are?

Can I just be honest? This is personal, man. I just look at the first few rows. And there's cancer. There's sick kids. There's broken marriages. There's prodigal children. There's tumors.

There's loss of loved ones. It's all right here. It's all right here. And so would you take those things and run to Jesus with this prayer of faith? God, I know that you are able to heal the cancer, restore my finances, help me endure the false accusation at work. Heal my marriage. I know that you are able to heal my broken heart. Stir up forgiveness in me, whatever that thing is.

And I believe that you will do that thing. But even if you don't, I will worship you alone. So would you stand up right where you are? I would like to invite our prayers to come forward. And here is the reason that we do this. Listen, man, this is not the time to fake it. If you're going to have a trouble here in this church because the gospel will root you out.

And if you're in the fire, let me warn you, do not compare your fire to anybody else's. You'll always lose. But if you're in the fire, know this. Jesus will meet you in the fire. And that we are to come together as brothers and sisters like this. Man, here's what I notice is I look at the prayers. They've been into fire, man. There's been infidelity.

There's been loss. there's been all kinds of addiction, it's all up here too. And because Jesus is, sometimes he rescued us from it, oftentimes he's rescued it through it, then we know how to pray because he's met us in the fire too. And so you believe, God, I know that you can and I am believing and praying that you will. And even if you don't, I'll worship you and you alone. You know why? Because if the tomb is empty, anything is possible.

but because the tomb is empty, the point it in our circumstances, but that he's our Savior. So I'm going to start praying. You start coming. Ready, come on. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us. And God, I thank you that when we are looking for your love, we don't have to look at our circumstances, but we can look to the cross. Because you have demonstrated your love for us in this that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. God, I thank you.

I thank you that you would love us enough. to use the circumstances of this world, the schemes of this inner.