But Even If He Doesn't
“16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[a] from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 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.””
Introduction
A. I sometimes ask a question when I am afraid, hurting, in extreme pain or when someone I love is going through major difficulties. I ask, “God, why are you allowing this?” I am not talking about having a bad headache, a sore arm or even financial problems that I have created. I am talking about big issues affecting people that are important to me or when I am in an extremely difficult situation.
B. I know I am not the first person to ask God a question like that. David was very open with God. He wanted to know why God allowed good to happen to his enemies and bad to happen to his people. Paul prayed three times about his thorn in the flesh. God doesn’t get hurt feelings because I question why He doesn’t enter into my situation and fix the issue. God is often very patient with me, wanting me to come to a different conclusion and ask a different question. I will tell you that question later.
C. We all agree that God is God and can do anything he wants. We all agree that God is greater than anything in all creations and therefore has the ability to fix every problem that sin has brought into this world. Yet, God chooses to allow some, maybe even many, of those issues to continue. What are we as followers of Jesus Christ, children of our Heavenly Father, people born again through Spirit to do when God doesn’t fix the issue?
Even If He Doesn’t
A. I want to tell you about a situation that is recorded for us in Daniel 3. (Recap vs 1- 12). King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold that was about 90 feet high and 9 feet thick. That’s taller than an 8 story building.
B. Why it was built, the Bible doesn’t say. What we are told is that when they heard certain music being played, all the people were to come, fall down before the image and worship the image the king had made.
C. In fact, the command came a warning. If anyone does bow down and worship it, they will be thrown into a fiery furnace. With that type of warning, when the music was played all the people bowed down and began to worship the image. Well, all except a few. There were some people who loved God so much that they would not bow down and worship anything other than God. That didn’t sit well with the king.
D. Listen to Dan. 3:13-15. Do you ever remember your mom saying something like, “I won’t tell you this again?” yet she was telling it to again…right then? That is what the king just did. He could have had them thrown into the furnace right then, but he gave them another chance to bow down and worship the image. But their response was not one he wanted to hear. (Read Dan. 3:16-18).
E. “But even if he does not…” Think for a moment. What proof did these men have that God would save them? Where was God when Babylon came marching into Israel and lead the people away in chains? Where was God when the temple was destroyed and the furnishing stolen and placed in the temple of some idol? Where was God all their lives? They are servants in a foreign land. God doesn’t always save.
F. The rest of the story is one we like to tell, but I want you to sit with this part. It was real. They were ready to die for their faith. Yes, God could (and we know, did) save them. The faith these men had was, “Even if God doesn’t save us in this life, we won’t bow down before a false god.”
My God Is My Rock
A. Here is the take-a-way. Serving God has more benefit than bowing to anything that takes me away from Him. Sometimes even Christians find it easier to bow down to something than to deal with the pain that comes from only honoring God.
B. Sin is alluring. Sin can sound good. Sin often looks like it could fix the issues we face that are long term, difficult, or in which the pain seems unbearable. But bowing down to that sin instead of saying, “Even if God doesn’t” won’t fix our problems. But I can build my house on the rock.
C. Isn’t that the point of the story Jesus tells in the Sermon on the Mount? Both the wise and the foolish man faced the wind and rain. The difference wasn’t how much they had to bear; the difference was building their house on the rock or the sand. Even if God doesn’t fix my problem, I am safe in the hands of God.
D. I want the type of faith that proclaims, “It Is Well With My Soul” even if it isn’t well with what is happening in my life. There is a verse that we don’t have in our hymnal that Mr. Spafford wrote. It says,
“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control. That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul.”
E. How do we live by faith? How do we walk in the dark times still trusting in a God we can’t see? With the same attitude Jesus had in garden the night he was betrayed. There, in his darkest hour, with sweat coming down his face Jesus prayed, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me.” (Mark 14:36a) Like those three men, Jesus knew what was possible with God, but the rest of the prayer is one we know well, “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Four words to live by, “Thy Will Be Done.”
Conclusion:
A. I want to live my life with the same mindset that these men had. I know God can. I don’t have to test God to trust God. Satan tried that with Jesus (jump off the pinnacle of the temple and the angels will save you). That was a true statement, but Jesus replied “It is written, do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
B. At the beginning of the sermon, I told you I sometimes ask “God, why are you allowing this?” Instead, I want to live so closely connected to God that I will to say, “Where you lead me I will follow.” God leads us by still water and God leads us through the valley of the shadow of death. But wherever God leads me, I’ll go with Him, with Him, all the way. If you need us to walk with you through whatever is happening in your life, then come, as we stand and sing.