Craig Smith - No Need for a Comeback
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Well, hey, welcome to Mission Hill! So good to have you with us today. If you’ve been with us throughout this series, you know we’ve been talking about what it looks like to build our lives on a firm foundation that can handle the rain when it comes down and the floods when they rise up. Today, actually, I want to shift things a little bit, shift gears a little bit, and I want to talk about what happens when your enemy realizes you’re succeeding. What happens when your enemy, the devil, actually recognizes that you’re starting to be harder to shake, that you’re starting to be a little bit harder to disrupt? You know, the Bible describes the devil in an interesting way. The Bible describes the devil as a roaring lion.
How many of you have ever heard that? How many of you have ever thought that’s a weird way to describe the enemy? Maybe not. It seems normal, right? I mean, he’s a lion. Lions, you know, they’re powerful and they devour things. But what’s interesting about it is he calls him a roaring lion. And that’s actually kind of strange because here’s the thing: a lion is a predator. Have you ever heard a predator roar right before it pounces on its prey? I mean, think about lions, obviously bigger, better versions of like a house cat, okay? Right? I’m not a big fan of cats; I kind of like lions. They’ve got to get bigger before I really like them. But have you ever seen a house cat sneak? How many of you have ever seen a house cat sneaking up on a bird or something like that? Have you ever heard them suddenly let out a bunch of noise right before they pounce?
No, because it’s dumb. It’s a dumb thing to do. Why? Why would you do that, right? You’re alerting them you’re right there. And here’s the reason why. It’s the Apostle Peter who described him that way. He said the devil’s a roaring lion. And the reason is because sometimes what happens on the African plains is animals will be aware there’s a lion out there, and so they hide. They find places of security, and the devil’s looking around and he can’t find anybody to devour. And so what he does is he roars. And by the way, I’ve been to Africa and I’ve heard lions roar even on the other side of a big fence, and it freaked me out. It’s this deep, low rumble that you feel in your soul somewhere. And your natural reaction when you hear it is to kind of jump back. And that’s what they do: they let out these horrible, incredible roars.
And what happens is animals that are in pretty secure places will leap out of those just in terror and fear. And suddenly now they can be devoured. Does that make sense? That’s what the devil does when he sees that you’ve started to build your life in a place of security. He starts to roar in the hopes that he can get you to leave that place of security and move into a place where he can get at you. And I want to talk about that today. If you want to follow along, we’re going to be in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament- the part of the Bible before Jesus. Daniel chapter 3 is one of those really famous stories if you grew up in church. How many of us grew up in church?
Okay, I promise you, you’ve heard the story. I grew up in church; I went to Sunday school. And I don’t know if you noticed, but when you’re growing up in church, there are like seven or eight Bible stories they just put on rotation, and this is one of those stories. But it’s interesting, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized there were some things in the story that they didn’t mention, and some pieces of what God says through the story that have been really encouraging for me, and I hope they’re going to be really helpful for you too.
A quick background: Daniel 3 takes place in the city of Babylon, in the nation of Babylon. And it’s about some Jewish people who were in Babylon because the Jewish people at this point in their history had basically stopped obeying God. They’d stopped serving Him; they were serving all kinds of false gods and turned to all kinds of idols and things like that. And so, because they walked out from under God’s blessing, they ended up being conquered by the Babylonians. The Babylonians took some of them and deported them, drawing them into the nation of Babylon. And so that’s kind of where we take-the story takes place in Babylon. There are some Jewish people here, but it’s not a Jewish nation.
And so, some interesting stuff happens in chapter 3:1. It starts off this way: Now King Nebuchadnezzar-that’s the Babylonian king — made an image of gold, or an idol of gold, 60 cubits high and six cubits wide. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. He then summoned — stop here for a quick second-how many of you have ever read the Bible and sometimes thought, «I don’t get it»? Can we just be real? Sometimes, you go listen to a message, and someone preaches, and you think, «I totally did not see that there.»
Anybody ever do that? Sometimes that’s because preachers are making it up. Okay? Sometimes that does happen. But sometimes it’s because, hopefully, preachers have learned some of the rules of reading God’s word. One of the rules — I’ll just kind of clue you in on this; it’ll help you in your own personal time reading the Bible-is that when you see a couple of things, you want to pay close attention. The two things I’m going to talk about today are repetition and elaboration.
When you see something where there’s just a lot of detail that gets repeated multiple times, you want to pay attention to repetition. Okay? Because honestly, paper in the ancient world was really valuable. So, you didn’t use it up for no good reason. If they say the same thing more than once, it’s not because they didn’t have anything else to meet their word count.
Anybody remember term papers? It’s not because of that; it’s because there’s something really important in that repetition. The other thing you’re going to pay attention to is elaboration. That is, when they give way more detail than you think is necessary.
Here’s the thing: I love my wife, and she is an amazing leader and an amazing communicator, but sometimes when she and I are talking, and she’s telling me about what happened in the day, there are enough details that I start to zone out. Okay? Sometimes, I didn’t need to know that. I just think, «Can we get to the point?» I’m impatient — that’s a big part of the problem, right?
But here’s the thing: when God in His word actually gives you a lot of detail on something, again, it’s not because He’s just been lonely and really needs to get His words out for the day. Okay? It’s because there’s something about that you need to pay attention to. And we’re going to see both of these things happen; we’re going to see elaboration and repetition. That’s going to clue us in to some stuff that otherwise we might miss.
Okay, so here’s the first one. He says that the Babylonian king then summoned-check this out-the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the advisers, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the other provincial officials. That’s elaboration. These are all government officials. And you’re like, «God, you could have just said that.» He summoned all the government officials-like, why give all the names? Because there’s something really significant about that. We need to pay attention to that.
Okay? So he summoned them to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. And so here’s the repetition: the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the advisers, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it.
Okay, so here’s the interesting thing. King Nebuchadnezzar builds an idol, and it’s a big idol. Okay, he says it’s 60 cubits; that’s about 90 ft. So it’s about the size of a 10-story building made out of gold. Can we just agree that’s a big idol? Okay, and big idols tend to attract our attention, right? And we have big idols in the world today. They look a little different, but we have things that are just kind of out there, and everybody’s kind of paying attention to them. They’re hard to miss, right? I mean, we have the idol of public approval, right? I mean, social media has made that a big idol. I mean, if you didn’t post about it and you didn’t get a bunch of likes in response to your post, did it even really happen? Like, it almost feels like it didn’t, right?
We have the idol of public approval. We have the idol of political power. We have the idol of sexual fulfillment. We have the idol of materialism. We have a lot of big idols, and we tend to look at them and think the dangerous thing is the size of those idols. But what’s interesting is that God moves pretty quickly past the size of the idol here, doesn’t He? Yeah, it’s 90 ft. He moves on. But what He leans in on, what He focuses on, is how many people went to the dedication. Did you catch that? That’s where you get the elaboration, a lot of detail, and you get the repetition multiple times, making sure you know. And the reason He does that is because He wants to make sure that we understand that the danger when it comes to the potential to compromise -the greatest danger isn’t the size of the idol; it’s the strength of the current. You hear me, church?
It’s not the size of the idol; it’s how many people are heading towards it. It’s how many people around you are moving, creating a current that you can just get swept up in, right? He says it’s not the size of the idol; it’s the strength of the current. How many of us have ever done something we regret? Come on, come on! Look at somebody and say, «Me too.» Let me ask you this: How many of us have ever done something we regret and we didn’t really even want to do it, but everybody around us was doing it? Come on, we have a word for it, right? We call it peer pressure. Another word for peer pressure is current. It’s hard to swim against it when everybody’s going in that same direction. You may not even be interested in that big idol.
If anything, honestly, the size of the idols can be a positive because you can sort of be aware of it, like, «I don’t want to go there,» but if everybody else is going there, you can get swept up and move to it and end up in a place of bowing before it without even thinking about it, right? I’ve done it. I just did it recently. I’ll be really real with you. I was with a group of pastors, and sometimes pastors in larger churches, they name- drop because they know pastors in bigger churches, authors of books, conference speakers, things like that. And I hate that. I was with a group, and they were doing it, and I was just like, «Oh, I hate that.»
And then all of a sudden, before I even realized it was happening, out of my mouth, I was like, «Well, when I was texting with so-and-so the other day…» What did I do? Did I just name-drop? Yeah, I did. And I actively didn’t want to participate in it. So why did I do it? Because everybody else was doing it. There’s pastor peer pressure, and it’s not always positive, right? I was talking to a guy a couple of years ago. He’s a college student, and he basically came to my office. He said, «I’m really struggling.» I said, «What’s going on?» He said, «Alcohol has become a huge idol in my life. Alcohol is this big idol in my life.»
And so he was telling me about how often he was getting drunk and how much he was struggling with it and how he couldn’t seem to break free from it. And I had this moment where I thought, «Well, wait a minute. Didn’t you just go on a mission trip?» He’s like, «Yeah, I just did this 3-week mission trip in South America.» I said, «Like, were you drunk on the mission trip?» He goes, «No.» I said, «Were you drinking while you were on the mission?» He said, «No.» I said, «Were you struggling with the fact that you weren’t drinking? I mean, were you really struggling with that addiction-level connection to it?» And he goes, «No, not really.» I said, «What was different? Like, why weren’t you struggling? Why wasn’t this big idol causing you to bow to it on the mission trip?» And he had this lightbulb moment. He said, «'Cause nobody else around me was doing it.» He said, «At school, everybody’s doing it, and you feel left out if you’re not doing it,» right?
That’s what I’m saying. It’s not the size of the idol. Some think it’s the size of the idol, but it’s actually the strength of the current. And what we need to understand is you cannot shrink the size of the idol. Okay? You can’t shrink its size, but you can slow the current. You can slow the current. You can surround yourself with people who are moving in the other direction, people who are fighting that current. And as they fight the current, you can kind of get into that change of the current with them, right? We can be like geese. You see the geese, you know, and they’re in that V. The one out front is really fighting hard against the current; the ones right on his right and left have it a little bit easier because he’s already disrupting the airflow.
And so you can find some people that are doing that and then you can jump into that place when they get tired, and then somebody else can jump in when you’re getting tired, and then you’re doing it together. You can’t shrink the idol; you can’t shrink its size, but you can reduce the current. So the question that we need to ask ourselves is just who are you surrounding yourself with? Who are you surrounding yourself with? That’s how you slow the current. You know, every year, unfortunately, I see people go off from Mission Hills, and they go off to college, and they go off full of faith. They get to college, and they’re ready to take that campus in the name of Jesus, and a year later, they’re not going to church.
A year later, they’re not reading their Bible. And some of them even decide, «I don’t even know that I believe in Jesus anymore.» And their parents sometimes go, «Maybe they just didn’t have enough faith.» And I go, «Listen, listen, your faith isn’t the main determiner of your future. Can I just be real with you? The strength of your faith is not the main determiner of your future; it’s your friends. Your friends are the determiner of your future. Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.»
Now, what’s happening here is that we’re going to see that there’s a small group of people, three, really four, that the book of Daniel is about. One of them doesn’t really come up in the story, but there are three who are fighting the current together. And if it weren’t for them fighting the current together, I’m not sure we would have this particular story. You with me? So who are you surrounding yourself with? And if I looked at your friends, what kind of future would I be able to predict for you? Okay, you can’t shrink the idol, but you can slow the current.
So he sets up this idol, and then the herald loudly proclaimed, «Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you’re commanded to do. As soon as you hear the sound-here’s another elaboration-the sound of the horn, the flute, the zither, the lyre, the harp, the pipe, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.»
And therefore, as soon as-by the way, underline those words, like if you’ve got an old-school physical Bible, and you can underline those words-as soon as; really important words. Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, the flute, the zither, the lyre, the harp, the pipe, and all kinds of music, all the nations and peoples of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. By the way, another repetition I didn’t bring up yet: «All the nations and peoples of every language» gets repeated twice.
And the reason it gets repeated twice is that we need to remember that some of the people that bowed were Jewish people because there were Jewish people. There were people that spoke Hebrew. The Hebrew language was present, and there were Jewish people in the province of Babylon because they had been deported there. And so when it says that all of them fell down, the point is God’s people, who’d been told there’s only one God, who had been told they were not to make idols or bow down before graven images, these people bowed before this idol. Okay? And they did it. Why? Well, it’s tempting to think that it was because of the threat. I mean, there’s a threat in the middle of that passage I just read, right? Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.
So, so that’s why they did it. It’s why they bowed. It was because of the consequence. It’s because of the threat. They didn’t want the bad thing to happen, and so they gave in and compromised, right? But notice what God says about the furnace. It was really fast, isn’t it? By the way, there’s a furnace: if you don’t bow, you’re going to be thrown into it. But where the word of God leans in, where there is elaboration and where there’s repetition, is on what? It’s on all those different musical instruments. And it says as soon as they heard all these things, they bowed down. And that’s really powerful because what God’s saying is, listen, when it comes to compromise, we think it’s the threat, but it’s not the threat. What leads us to compromise often isn’t the threat; it’s the trigger. Listen, it’s not the threat; it’s the trigger. It’s not the consequence; it’s the cue. It’s the thing that happens that causes us to respond in a compromising way without honestly even thinking about it. It just happens almost automatically.
Anybody remember the story of Pavlov’s dog? Right, when there was a bell, everybody-you know the dogs would salivate even though there was no food any longer attached to it, right? And it’s easier for us to go, «Yeah, those are just dumb dogs.» And what God says is, «Yeah, slow down. You’re not that much better.» And we’re not. We get it, right? There are sounds that automatically trigger responses from us, aren’t there? How about this sound? Anybody? And we got a little triggered. I saw some of you. You’re like, «There’s that sound, right?» It’s like, «I’ve got to check it,» right? And how many of us have ever been in a situation where you know you’re like, «I want to be present. I want to be with these people, and I’m not even going to look at my phone or anything.» And then all of a sudden you hear that sound, and you pull it out and you disconnect.
How many of us have done that? Come on. And you would have said, «I’m not going to do that.» But then what happened? There was a trigger, right? There was a cue, and there’s all kinds of-I think it goes way, way back. This is super old school. Some of you are not even going to remember this. Some of you are going to need therapy after this. But does anybody remember this sound? «You’ve got mail.» I think that’s what started it: AOL. People remember AOL? I don’t have an AOL address anymore because I’m cool, but I did have one at one point.
And I remember I’d hear that sound, and I was like, «Okay, let’s go see what it is.» It was never anything good. My mom still has this. She’s probably watching. I love you, Mom. But AOL, I think they actually did get rid of it still. But it’s amazing how deep that trigger goes, right? And here’s the interesting thing: we tend to focus on the threat and we go, «Well, if I don’t do this, you know the enemy is going to take me out.» Can I just tell you the enemy is not all that interested in taking you out? Because the enemy doesn’t have to take you out if he can train you up. You hear me, church? The enemy doesn’t have to take you out. All he’s got to do is train you up so that you give in and compromise the moment the cue comes, right?
You know some of you heard me say that I used to have some real trouble with sleeping, and so we had to kind of figure out some patterns and some rhythms. One of the things that I do is right as I’m kind of winding down, I watch an episode of The Big Bang. Okay? Don’t judge me. I watch it. I’ve watched all the episodes. I know it’s coming. There’s something kind of comforting about it. And I noticed an interesting thing: it’s not always helpful for me, but it was really helpful for my dogs because I have Huskies. Huskies are difficult animals. And whenever it used to be, whenever we wanted to go to bed, Huskies, just by nature, are argumentative. And so when we’d be like, «It’s time to go to bed. Come on, guys, you’ve got to go to bed.»
And like nothing, they would not move. And so then I’d have to get louder, and eventually, I’d get the one-eye-open kind of very deliberate ignoring from them. Eventually, you know, I start to threaten them, and they’d eventually sit up and then they’d talk back. So annoying! It would escalate, and I would have to-I–I, you know, I’m-I know they don’t speak English, but I’m like, «I’m listing consequences. If you don’t do this, I’m going to do this, and this is going to happen.» It was just so irritating. Then we got into this habit where we were watching «The Big Bang Theory» every night before we went to bed, and I noticed something interesting. I noticed that eventually, when the theme song at the end came on, the theme song at the end is different from the beginning. At the beginning, the theme song has words in it, right? But the end song, it’s just the music.
What I noticed is that when the end song would play, my dogs would get up and go to bed. I didn’t have to argue; I didn’t have to threaten. They just did it. I mean, it’s so deeply ingrained in them at this point. Sometimes, like on my day off on Fridays, I’ll watch an episode in the afternoon to see if I can maybe get a nap in. My dogs, they’ll hear it, and they’ll be like, «All right, I’m going to bed.» It’s bizarre, really. I don’t know what’s happening. And we’re no different. Do you understand what I’m saying? There are the cues. It’s not the threat; it’s the trigger. The enemy doesn’t have to take you out if he can just train you up.
Some of you are here today, honestly, and this is why you’re here: because there’s an area of your life where you keep compromising. There’s an area of your life where you deeply desire to honor God and to follow His commandments, and you don’t know why it keeps happening. You keep praying and you keep trying harder, and yet you seem to keep compromising. What God wants to say to you is: it’s the trigger; it’s the cue-the unconscious thing that pulls you into the compromise. It’s the moment the phone dings, and I completely ignore everybody around me. It’s the fact that when my wife goes to bed, I go on the internet. The stress is rising, and I start binging. And you’re going, «Why? Why do I do that?»
What God wants in this moment is to actually call your attention to the cue, to call your attention to the trigger. Because when we begin to identify that, that’s when we begin to go, «God, give me strength to resist this particular trigger, this particular cue.» And I believe some of you are going to be set free today because you’ve heard God say, «Where we need to focus is that trigger.»
Now, at this time, some astrologers came forward, and they denounced the Jews. 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, the flute, the zither, the lyre, the harp, the pipe, and all kinds of music-the cue, right? — must fall down and worship the image of gold.» That’s the compromise cue.
«And whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace. But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Anybody remember Veggie Tales? Rack, Shack, and Benny? They pay no attention to you, your majesty. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold that you have set up. They will not compromise. The cue isn’t working. The compromise isn’t happening. So I guess we need to lean on the consequence, right?» And furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king.
Nebuchadnezzar said to them, «Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? Now, when you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the zither, the lyre, the harp, the pipe, and all kinds of music, if you are 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. And then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?» The arrogance of it, right? What Nebuchadnezzar says there is like, it is, man, it’s just begging for a good comeback, isn’t it? Anybody ever had the experience-that happens to me all the time -where somebody says something to me, and in the moment, I just kind of stutter and stammer my way through some kind of sad little response? And then I’m driving home, and I’m like, «Oh, I know what I should have said.»
Anybody else have that feeling like you’re a world expert at comebacks after the fact, and then you can’t really think of one? Like, should I text them? Because it feels passive-aggressive. I listen to this and I’m like, oh man, if I had some time to think about it, what about the God who can rescue me from your hand? How about the God who gave you your hand, Nebuchadnezzar? That’d be a pretty good comeback, wouldn’t it? Plus, I think: how about what God can rescue me from your hand? How about the God who flung the stars across the heavens and didn’t even break a sweat? How about that God? That’s a pretty good comeback, isn’t it?
Here’s their comeback: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to him, «King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.» How disappointing is that? It’s disappointing because I think our natural tendency is to go, real confidence is loud, real confidence is bold, real confidence is in your face, real confidence has a comeback. They’re like, «Yeah, I don’t need to prove my point. I don’t need to change your mind. I don’t need to win the day.» And I realized that’s real confidence, isn’t it? True confidence doesn’t need a comeback. True confidence just keeps on keeping on.
Let me think about Jesus. Apostle Peter, he was pretty good with comebacks. And when he saw Jesus arrested, when he saw Jesus falsely accused, when he saw Jesus slapped around and beaten, he kept waiting for the comeback. And then years later, he wrote to his church and he said, «When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.» True confidence doesn’t need a comeback.
And one of the things I’ve discovered over the years is the louder people are, the less confident they actually are. The loud is really an insecurity mechanism. True confidence doesn’t need a comeback; it just keeps moving. They said, «If we’re 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.» I’m going to play with the translation there-I’ll explain why in a second. «And may he deliver us from your majesty’s hand. 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.»
These three things I believe are the pivot to this story. And I didn’t fully understand that growing up in Sunday school when I heard it. Well, what they say basically is here are the three things that keep us from compromise: I know, I hope, I won’t. Those are the three things that keep us from compromise: I know, I hope, and I won’t. They say, «I know.» Here’s what I know about God that I’m going to hold on to: I know our God is able. They say, «I hope.» The reason I play with the translation there is some translations say something like, I hope or may he save us from your hand, and some of them say he will save us from your hand. The reason is because the underlying original language, the particular form of the verb, can actually be used as a prayer-God, will you do this? -or it can actually be used as a statement of fact. It’s just kind of an oddity of the language. Some translations go, well, it’s a statement: I will. But others go, I pray, may he, I hope.
And I think that’s actually better because you notice they say, «But even if he doesn’t, I won’t.» Right? Which I think is odd if they go, «And he’s absolutely, I’m 100% sure he’s going to do this.» But even if he doesn’t? No. I mean, I wish I had that kind of certainty about what God would do. I rarely do. Like, I wish more things would catch fire, and deep voices would speak out of them and tell me exactly what God’s plans are. I don’t-I’ve never seen that happen. When God speaks, it’s rarely that clear for me. And so I really think probably the better way to translate, and really the more natural way in context, is: I know he’s able, I hope he will, but whether he does or he doesn’t, I won’t. I won’t bow.
Now listen, if you want to avoid compromise in your life, those are your three tools. I know I hope, but no matter what, I won’t. And Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual, and he commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. And so these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans, and their clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace.
See another elaboration there? It’s a lot of specific information about their clothing. And what’s also interesting, and you can’t see it in English, is that the Old Testament-the part before Jesus-is written in Hebrew primarily. A little bit, actually, this little bit is written in Aramaic, which is a very similar language to Hebrew. And then in the New Testament, you’ve got Greek. Those words for all those different clothing types, they’re not Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. They’re Babylonian. He actually uses the Babylonian words for each of these things, and the reason for that is because he wants to make sure that you and I know Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were dressed in the same clothes as everybody else who was bowing down. You didn’t look at them and go, «Those guys are different.»
And what’s really interesting to me is that if you read literature from this period, it’s pretty clear that one of the ways the Jewish people sort of registered their independence, even when they were in exile, one of the ways the Jews signaled that we weren' t like everybody else is they refused to wear the clothes of the people who were around them. They considered it a compromise. Which means that, honestly, the fact that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were wearing Babylonian clothes meant they probably received some criticism from their own people. They went, «You guys have compromised! You’re wusses! You’re giving in!»
But think about this for a second. The people who wouldn’t wear the Babylonian clothes bowed, 'cause the people of every nation and every language bowed as soon as the cue happened. The people who wouldn’t wear the clothes bowed to the idol, and the people who wore the clothes refused to bow. Isn’t that interesting? What God is trying to help us understand is it’s not about how you’re dressed. It’s not about the outside; it’s about what’s true inside. The Jewish people as a whole, there in Babylon, they were dressed differently, but they weren’t built differently. They were just like everybody around them. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were dressed the same, but they were built differently. And that’s powerful, isn’t it? Here’s the question I think we need to wrestle with: Am I built differently or just dressed differently?
The world’s going to ask you to compromise. The world’s going to roar at you and try to get you to leap from the foundations of your faith. They’re going to try to get you to bow before their idols. And what’s going to keep you from bowing has nothing to do with the outside stuff; it has everything to do with whether or not you’ve been changed from the inside out by the Holy Spirit of God. And the reality is-and I only say this in love — there are a lot of people who go to church their whole lives, and they’re like, «I’m different because I go to church and I read my Bible and I listen to worship music and I do all these,» but it’s an outside thing. They’re dressed differently, but inside, they haven’t really been transformed because they’ve never really surrendered. They’ve never even had that moment.
I had a conversation earlier this week with somebody. I said, «Hey, when did you give your life to Jesus?» What I got was a lot of, «Well, I’ve always gone to church, and I’ve always done this, and I’ve always served, and I’ve always done these things.» I was like, «Hey dude, that’s not what I asked.» I said, «What’s that moment when you said' yes' to faith in Jesus?» And yeah, I make a joke a lot. You guys know the joke. But the reason I do it is because I think a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
So, I make this joke where I say, «Listen, I’ve spent a lot of time at Chipotle; that doesn’t make me a burrito.» Right? You spend a lot of time in church; it’s not what makes you a follower of Jesus. It’s not what makes you built different. You might be dressed different, but it’s that moment where you say, «Jesus, I’m a sinner. I can never be good enough. All the things I’m trying, it’s not enough. I’m going to fall upon your mercy. You died on the cross to pay the price for the wrong I’ve done. I have to admit I’ve done a lot of wrong and ask for your forgiveness, receive your grace, and invite the power of your resurrection into my life. I’m going to be changed from the inside out, and I’m going to be built different.»
Some of you are here today because you’re not built different; you’re just dressed different. And God wants to change that because He loves you and has so much more for you. The king’s command was so urgent, and the furnace so hot, that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, «Wait, wait! Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?» They replied, «Certainly, your majesty.» He said, «Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.»
Some people think that might have been the pre-incarnate Jesus; it’s possible. Some people think it was an angel. It doesn’t matter; it was the presence of God. The point is this: God didn’t keep them out of the fire, but He met them in it. I don’t know about you, but I want Him to keep me out of the fire. Amen? But can I tell you, some of you are in the fire, and you’re here today because God wants to tell you this: if God doesn’t keep you out of the fire, He will meet you in it. He will. In fact, He is in it with you. It’s just that our eyes are on the flames rather than on God, and so we may be missing a reality that He wants to call your attention to right now.
By the way, one other thing about the fire-it’s so interesting: all those clothes and everything we’re going to see in a second, they were fine, but something burned up in the fire. Did you catch it? Nebuchadnezzar said they’re walking around unbound. The ropes that tied their wrists, the ropes that tied their feet, those burned up. Can I just tell you something? I’ve seen painfully often in my own life that sometimes it’s the fire that sets us free. Sometimes it’s in the midst of those storms of life and those difficult seasons, and we don’t understand why God led us into it. But when we’re in it, we suddenly find that we know what matters now, we know what counts, and we know what our lives are actually worth investing in in a way that we didn’t see before.
I went through one of those seasons even just early this year, through the fire, and there was some freeing that happened and some stuff that I thought was important but I don’t really care much about anymore. There’s a freedom that came from it. Sometimes, it’s the fire that sets us free. It’s not because God doesn’t love you that He let you be there; it’s because He loves you too much to let you stay bound. Nebuchadnezzar 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 satraps, prefects, governors, and royal advisers crowded around them. And they saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was there a hair on their heads singed. Their robes were not scorched, but the ropes were gone. There was no smell of fire on them. And Nebuchadnezzar said, «Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel and rescued his servants. They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. They would not compromise. And therefore, I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way.» And then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
Do you see what happened there? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego must have thought, when God let them fall into the fire, «This is a significant setback. We’re trying to honor God and promote his ways, and this is a big setback.» And then it turns out that the king, who persecuted them, ended up publicly promoting the worship of their God. So it turns out it wasn’t a setback at all. It was a setup for something God wanted to do that nobody could have even imagined. And some of you are here today because God wants to say to you: you’re in a fire. You’re in a storm, and you think it’s a setback. And it’s not. What you’re going through right now, this fire, isn’t a setback. It’s a setup. It’s a setup for God to do something in your life that, when it’s done, you’re going to look back and you’re going to say, «That was 100% worth the trip through the fire.»
So how do you walk through it? Three things I know: I hope I won’t. You’ve got to know. You have an I know. I know God’s good. I know God’s powerful. I know God’s watching. I know God’s with me. I know God’s working, bringing good out of all this for those who love him and are called according to his purposes. I know I’m loved. I know I’m not alone. I know I’m called. I know I’m forgiven. I know I’m free. You have an I know, and you need to hold on to that I know. What do you know that God’s saying? Hold on to it. Grab hold of it, and do not let go of it.
And you have an I hope, don’t you? I hope God will make a way. I hope God will change my circumstances. I hope God will open the door. I hope God will close that door. I hope God will redeem that relationship. I hope God will give me that child. I hope God will give me that job. I hope God will give me that promotion. I hope He’ll-whatever. What is it? We hold on to the truth. We let go of the hopes in the sense that we send them up to the Father, and we pray them. And James says, «Sometimes you don’t have because you don’t ask.» You’re afraid to ask. Don’t be afraid to ask, hope in the Lord, and pray those prayers.
And then there’s an I won’t. You and I, we have an I won’t. I won’t bow. I won’t give up. I won’t go back. I won’t give in. I won’t quiet down. I won’t transfer my trust. I won’t compromise.
God, would you speak in this moment? Remind every heart here of that thing they need to know and hold on to with all that they have. Lord, strengthen the fingers of their hearts that wrap around that truth as you speak it to them right now. God, would you receive every hope in this moment? We lift our prayers to you, these things that we long for and desire. We’re not going to miss out because we didn’t ask. And so we lift them up, knowing that we lift them to a Father who loves us profoundly and deeply. And Lord, would you speak to each one of us about the «I won’t,» the «I won’t» that we will not give into?
The enemy is roaring and trying to make us leap off the foundations, trying to call us into a compromise. But as you speak to us right now, Lord, we say yes in your Spirit. We won’t do it, and we trust the power of your Holy Spirit to help us hold on and to lift up in hope, to refuse to surrender to those voices of compromise. And we thank you that we have the power of the Holy Spirit to do that. But Lord, we also pray for those who are listening to this message around the world, who do not have that power. And if that’s you, if you’ve been listening to this message, maybe what I said today about the fact that you — it’s not about being dressed differently, it’s about being built differently. And you can’t build yourself differently; only God can.
Maybe even as you listen to that message, you realize you’ve been going to church for a long time but you’ve never surrendered to Jesus. And that’s what God wants to do in your life right now. He doesn’t want you dressed differently; He wants to build you differently. And here’s the foundation of that: you’re going to have a conversation with Him right now where you say, «God, I have sinned, and I’m sorry. Thank you for loving me anyway. Jesus, thank you for dying to pay the price for my sin. I believe you rose from the dead, and I need the power of your resurrection to rebuild my life. So Jesus, I’m putting my trust in you. I’m surrendering to you. I will follow you and you only from here on out.» And all God’s people said, Amen.