A New Beginning

Greg Laurie: Everybody worships. Some would say, "No, only religious folks worship. Worship is a church word. Just church people do that." Everyone bows at some altar. Some bow before the altar of money. Others bow before the altar of pleasure. But we are wired to worship. We're designed to worship. Not things, not objects, we're designed to worship God.

Guest (Male): Believers are drawn to worship. Love compels us. But we're also drawn to God when life gives us nowhere else to go, when trials bring us to our knees. That's the perfect position to pray. We can waste time focusing on why, asking why it happened. But today on *A New Beginning*, Pastor Greg Laurie points us to who. Who's the one who has the power and the desire to get us through the mess we're in? Good encouragement is coming our way.

Greg Laurie: Now, we're in a series called *Jesus and You, Part 2*. We're looking at Old Testament appearances of Christ. We call these Christophanies where Jesus shows up in the Old Testament, like He did when Abraham, in obedience to God, was offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice. A last-minute reprieve was given. The Angel of the Lord showed up, who actually was Christ Himself, telling him not to go through with it.

Then we looked at the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel. Or he thought it was an angel, but in fact, he was wrestling with Christ Himself. He said, "I'm going to call the name of this place Peniel," which means the face of God, because he had seen God face to face. Then we looked also at how Jesus appeared to both Gideon and Joshua before they went into battle.

Now we come to probably the best-known Christophany in all of the Bible: when Jesus walked with these three Hebrew teenagers, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in this fiery trial they found themselves in. Maybe I'm talking to somebody that's in a fiery trial right now. Don't despair. You're not alone in what you're facing. I love the words of 1 Peter 4 that says, "Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you're going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Be happy if you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God will come upon you."

So you might be thinking, "Man, I'm walking with the Lord. I'm doing all the things a Christian ought to do. Why is God allowing this trial?" Don't be surprised by this trial. All of us go through times of trial. I want to explain why that happens in a few moments, but consider this contrast. God allows difficulty in the life of the Christian, and God even allows temptation in the life of the Christian.

But the devil tempts you in order to destroy you, but God tests us to develop your faith. Let me say that again. The devil tempts you to destroy your faith; God tests you to develop your faith. Sometimes I'll hear people say, "Well, I lost my faith. That was so hard, what I went through. I don't have faith in God anymore." Listen to this. The faith that cannot be tested is the faith that cannot be trusted.

Maybe you never had real faith to begin with. You didn't lose your faith; you never had faith. But real faith in Christ will get stronger through times of testing and trial, not weaker. This is clearly shown in the story of these three Hebrew holy boys, these young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They stood up for what was true, and we're all going to have to make that stand in life.

The best time when you're building a house to really give attention to detail is when you're drawing up the plans and then laying the foundation. You want to get that electrical right. You want to get that foundation right. You want to get that plumbing right. Because then when you put your walls up and you paint and wallpaper and bring in furniture, that's all fine, but the important part is the foundation.

In the same way, in the Christian life, the most important time is in the early days of your faith. If you're young, let me talk to you for a moment. These are the days to lay a good foundation, to develop good disciplines in your life, like reading your Bible every day. You make a commitment. "I'm going to read the Bible every day. I'm going to pray every day." Here are some other things. "I'm going to make my bed. Clean up after myself." Why is it so quiet in here? Are you sloppy? What's going on?

Discipline in the little things because the evening of your life is determined by the morning of your life. The end of your life is determined by the beginning of your life. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were taken captive along with their friend Daniel by Babylon. But they were very intelligent, outstanding young men, so the king hand-picked them to be a part of his cabinet, if you will. They were in the court where they influenced the king.

They were among his counselors, which meant that they lived in the literal lap of luxury. They lived in the palace of the most powerful man in all of the world, and so they would sit at the king's table and eat the king's food. For some reason, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego made a principled stand that they would not eat the food from the king's table. The Bible doesn't tell us why. Were they lactose intolerant? I doubt that.

Whatever it was, they couldn't eat this food. I think it's probably because the food may have been offered to false gods or idols. So they said, "We're not going to eat the food." So the guy who was in charge said, "Hey, you got to eat this food or I'll get in trouble." They said, "Don't worry. We'll be fine. We'll eat our own little diet, and we'll be as healthy as everyone else."

And sure enough, they were. I only bring that up because they made a stand in a relatively small area of their life, which supported them when they had to make the bigger stand later in life. If you compromise in the little things now, you're going to compromise in the bigger things later. And boy, they were really challenged when they had to decide what to do when the king commanded them to worship this false god.

One night, the king has a crazy dream. I don't know if he had too much pizza or what. It's funny, we say pizza causes crazy dreams. I had pizza the other night and I had crazy dreams, very vivid, too. I don't think it was pizza, but the king has this vivid dream. He calls in all of his counselors, the astrologers and others, including Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He says, "Hey, I had this dream. Tell me the meaning of this dream. It really freaked me out."

And the counselors said, "Well, tell us what your dream is, and we'll make stuff up and tell you what we think it means." They didn't say that, but that's what they basically did. He says, "If you're really counselors that get this supernatural wisdom, you'll know the dream and the interpretation." Well, they didn't know the dream. He said, "That's it. I'm having you all killed."

Word got to the prophet Daniel that this was happening. He says, "Relax, everybody. Let me come in and talk to the king." He says, "King, I know what your dream was. I'm going to tell you about your dream, and I'm going to give you the interpretation. Okay, so you basically had this dream, and it's of this giant statue. Am I right?" "Yes, that's true." "Head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, and feet of iron and clay. Is that the dream?" "Yeah, that's it."

Basically, Daniel explains that this is a glimpse into the future, and Babylon, symbolized by the head of gold, will be overtaken by the Medo-Persians, who will be overtaken by the Greeks, and on it went. So it was a glimpse into the future of Babylon and, for that matter, the world. Now, the king was blown away, and he even said to Daniel, "Your God is the God of gods and the Lord over kings and a revealer of mysteries." So that's kind of good. Looks like the king was very impressed.

But a little bit of time passes, about 16 to 20 years. Nebuchadnezzar takes this dream and he makes it into a giant gold statue of himself. Then he decides to cover it in gold. Then he says that everybody should worship this statue, and if you don't bow down and worship this statue, you will be put to death. Word got to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they refused to bow.

Now, what's fascinating to note is there were some 300,000 people present, many of them Jews who had been taken captive by Babylon, who apparently bowed before this image. So only three refused to bow. You say, "Well, where was Daniel?" We don't know. He's not in the narrative. He was somewhere. He wasn't here. But they would not bow before the image. They stuck out like three sore thumbs when everybody was bowing down before the image.

Why would they not bow? Very simple. They read their Bibles. The Bible says in Exodus 20, "Don't make idols of any kind. Never worship them or bow down to them, for I am the Lord your God, and I am a jealous God, and I will not share your affection with any." So they refused to bow, and this really made the king angry.

Guest (Male): Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a minute. Hi everyone, I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a Harvest version of Netflix. We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like *Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon*, *Johnny Cash: Redemption of an American Icon*, *A Rush of Hope*, and much more. Then we have our television program, daily devotions, and much more. So go and download the Harvest Plus app. Well, we're at a critical moment in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They had violated King Nebuchadnezzar's command and refused to bow to a statue of the king. Pastor Greg continues.

Greg Laurie: Daniel 3, verse 14. Nebuchadnezzar said to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you refuse to serve my gods or to worship the gold statue that I've set up? I'll give you one more chance. If you bow down and worship the statue I have made when you hear the sound of the musical instruments, all will be well. But if you refuse, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Now, what God will be able to rescue you from my power then?"

Verse 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, "Oh Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if He doesn't, Your Majesty can be sure that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue that you have set up."

What a narrative that is. Nebuchadnezzar was picking a fight with God. "What God's going to save you?" Oh, he's going to find out the hard way how powerful God actually was. It's never a good idea to choose off God. Jacob got into a fight with God and ended up with a limp for the rest of his life. You're never going to win in a fight with God. He had forgotten that God gave him the interpretation to his dream.

So now he's just filled with pride, and he wants everyone to worship. By the way, everybody worships. Republicans worship. Democrats worship. Independents worship. Conservatives worship, and so do liberals. Agnostics worship. Even atheists worship. You say, "Greg, you're wrong." No, I'm not wrong. Everyone worships. I didn't say they all worship God. I said they worship.

Everyone bows at some altar. Everyone has some kind of a deity, some thing or someone that they give their allegiance to. Some bow before the altar of money. That's what it's all about for them. Others bow before the altar of pleasure. Others bow before the altar of fame. Others bow before the altar of sex. Whatever it is, they bow at an altar. But we are wired to worship.

We're designed to worship, not things, not objects, we're designed to worship God. I read an interesting article that neuroscientists have found that during prayer and worship, the prefrontal cortex—that is the region responsible for focus, attention, and decision-making—becomes highly active. This reduction in self-related activity explains why many people describe feeling connected to God when they worship.

They said this isn't true of just singing songs in general; it's true only of worship. Scientists observing these patterns suggest the human brain may be wired for worship. Isn't that interesting? I believe that's true, and I've experienced it, haven't you? When you're going through whatever you're going through—maybe it's something very troubling, very agitating—and then you just start to sing these songs of praise to God, and you think about the Lord, a peace comes over you because you know what you're doing?

It's not just singing; you're praying. Worship is just prayer set to song. That's all it is, and that's a lot. So you're praying about it instead of worrying about it, and it's something we're all designed to do. But here's the thing. You're going to end up serving whatever you worship. Remember when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness? He said, "I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world if you will worship me."

Jesus said, "You shall worship the Lord God only, and Him only shall you serve." Fascinating. The devil didn't say anything about serving. He just asked for momentary worship. But Jesus understood that you will end up serving what you worship. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said effectively the same thing in verse 18: "Your Majesty can be sure we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you've set up."

As an example, just a moment at an altar can lead to a lifetime of regrets. A moment at the altar of sexual experimentation can lead to a lifetime of regret: an unexpected pregnancy, a child given up for adoption, worst of all, abortion. Or if you try this or go into this other perversion, it can lead to a lifetime of regret.

Listen, God created sex. It was His idea. Pretty good idea, too. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for sex. But sex is beautiful and wonderful and can even be blessed by the Lord when it's in its proper place. The proper place for sex is in a committed marriage relationship between a man and a woman, and there are no exceptions to that whatsoever according to the Bible.

So many of the problems in our culture are because we disregard this. "Oh no, a man can marry a man," some will say. "A woman can marry a woman. Or we'll have a throuple, or we'll redefine it. I'm not even sure if I am a man, maybe I'm a woman trapped in a man's body. Or just we'll live together outside of marriage. Or we'll just get married and then we'll get divorced."

You can trace almost every social ill in our country today to the breakdown of the family and specifically to the absence of fathers. Stop messing with God's plan. Get back into it God's way and watch how He will bless and change everything. So they're not going to bow. There's a lot of pressure to bow today, to bow to a lot of altars, a lot of ideologies.

It's amazing how on TikTok, there are all these TikTok challenges. One TikTok challenge was swallowing a Tide Pod. You know what a pod is? Those little things you throw in. It was a TikTok challenge. Another TikTok challenge: go dance in traffic. What could possibly go wrong? Then there's this big trend of the Stanley Tumbler cups. Are you really that dehydrated that you have to carry a giant metal cup with you everywhere?

"I might need water suddenly." Yes, for you, maybe a whole village, I don't know. But then you have to have them in the right colors. Remember when you had to get the red one? People were standing in line, staying overnight to get the red Stanley cup. Oh, now it's the pink one. Now they're out. They say the Stanley cups are out. Give me a break. Stop following the trends.

But we're like sheep. "What's the new trend? What's the popular thing?" But this can then happen in other areas of life. When you're in the classroom and everybody has one view and you have another because you believe the Bible. Or at your workplace, everyone sees it this way and you see it another way because you have a biblical worldview. That's good. Stand your ground. That's what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did.

Guest (Male): Good encouragement from Pastor Greg Laurie today on *A New Beginning*. A message called *Staying Cool When Things Get Hot*. And there's more to come in this study. Our mission here at Harvest Ministries and *A New Beginning* is knowing Him and making Him known. We're all about showing people how to come to know God, how to come into a relationship with God. Someone can enter into that kind of relationship today, can't they?

Greg Laurie: They can, and it's so simple. I think because it's so simple, people think, "Oh, it can't be that easy." Well, look, Jesus did all the heavy lifting. He carried the cross for you. He died on that cross that He carried. This isn't about what you do; it's about what He's done. But here's what the Bible says. Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

So let's just say that you're caught in a rip tide out in the ocean and you need help, and there's a lifeguard at the stand, and they see you. You've got to call out to them and let them know you need saving. The same is true when it comes to eternal life. Jesus is ready to save you. Will you call out to Him? You say, "Well, okay, how do I do that?" You do it through prayer.

Prayer is just talking to God. So listen, I'd like to lead you in a simple prayer. If you pray this prayer after me, I believe God will hear it and answer it, and Christ will come to live inside of you. Thousands of people have prayed a prayer like this over the years that we've been doing this radio program and have seen their life change. There's no power or magic in a prayer. It's all about your commitment to Christ, but this is a way to call on the name of the Lord in this prayer.

So if you want Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, if you want to fill that big hole in your heart, just pray this prayer after me. You can pray it out loud if you like. Pray it in the quietness of your heart. But pray these words if you would.

Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that You're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin. I am sorry for my sin, and I turn from it now. I choose to follow You from this moment forward. Be my Savior and my Lord. Be my God and my friend. Thanks for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Listen, if you just prayed that prayer, I want you to know that God has heard you and has answered it. The Bible says these things we write to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. That you may know. It's yours now. God has given it to you because it's the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Congratulations and welcome to the family of God.

Guest (Male): Yeah, that's right. Listen, would you let us help you get started living this new life? Let us send you Pastor Greg's *New Believer's Bible*. It's in an easy-to-understand translation with so many helps specifically for those who are new to the faith. It offers simple explanations of concepts you may have never understood before.

We'll send it free of charge, so get in touch for your copy of the *New Believer's Bible*. Call us at 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click "Know God." Next time, more insights from the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We're finding Jesus in this Old Testament story next time. Join us here on *A New Beginning* with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.