From His Heart

Speaker 1

Is your faith fireproof? You'll find out. Today on From His Heart, you want.

Speaker 2

To have a faith that stands up to the fire. You in a fiery furnace today. Make up your mind that disobeying God is not an option. We need to choose to obey regardless of the pressures.

Regardless of the pressures, you're going to feel pressure to disobey God. You're going to feel pressure to go the way of the world because the world exerts pressure. What are some of the pressures?

When you talk about pressures to go the way of the world, there is tremendous truth, there is blessing, there is hope that you always dream of. He can heal every scar from his heart.

Speaker 1

Welcome to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Listen, how can you have a faith that stands up to the fiery trials that society can put you through? Today on From His Heart, an encouraging message called Fireproof.

It's going to reveal some practical decisions that every Christian should make so that when the fires of the world are blazing around you and the heat is extreme, you'll be prepared to stand up for God and let him make you fireproof. That's the title of the message today from the series, How to Live the Christian Life in an Unchristian World.

For more information about how to get this series, just go to fromhisheart.org. But on this first day of the week, let's dig into the Book of Daniel and allow Pastor Jeff Shreve to help us know how to have a faith that can stand in the fire and not get burned, because we have become fireproof.

Speaker 2

Heard a story about two nuns. They were nurses, and they were going into the country to check on a patient. As they were driving back from the country to the convent, they ran out of gas on this country road. They thought, man, what are we gonna do? Just then, a truck came by. He saw that the sisters were in trouble, and so he pulled over and asked, "What's the matter?" They explained that they had run out of gas. The truck driver said, "I can help you. I can siphon some gas out of my tank and give it to you, and then you can put it in your car and have enough gas to get to the gas station." They agreed that was a good idea, but he mentioned that he didn't have a container. He asked if they had any kind of container to siphon off some gas. They looked in their trunk and, being nurses, found a bedpan. They asked, "What about this?" The trucker replied, "That would probably be enough. We can get some out, and that would work." So he siphoned some gas into the bedpan.

After filling the bedpan, he had to leave, so he left them with it. The sisters took the bedpan and went over to the side of the car to pour the gas in. Just at that moment, a highway patrolman drove by and saw them putting the contents of the bedpan into the car. He rolled down his window and said, "Sisters, I don't think that's gonna work, but I do admire your faith."

I want to talk today about faith. Not just little faith, but big faith, admirable faith—wow kind of faith. Faith that trusts God, faith that believes God, faith that doesn't compromise no matter the situation. Faith that can stand up to the hottest fire. You know, Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith, it's impossible to please God. It's not improbable; it's not highly unlikely—it's impossible to please God if you don't have faith. Jesus said that if you just had faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you could do amazing things. And what if you had really great faith?

Two people in the Bible are commented on by the Lord as having great faith: the Syrophoenician woman and the centurion. He said, "Wow, you guys have great faith." There are three other guys in the Bible who showed great faith, and we want to study them today. Their names were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They had faith to stand up to the king. They had faith even to say, "We're not going to bow. If you throw us in the fiery furnace, then you throw us in the fiery furnace." We can learn so much about being a person of faith from the story in Daniel chapter three.

If you have your Bibles, turn to Daniel chapter three, and let's look at this passage. God wants to do a work in your heart and in my heart so that we would be men and women, boys and girls, who have great faith—a faith that can stand up to the fire. Daniel chapter three says this: Nebuchadnezzar, the king, made an image of gold. Nebuchadnezzar is the king of Babylon. The year is probably around the 590s BC. We don't know how much time has passed between Daniel chapter two and Daniel chapter three, but probably not a whole lot. He is the king, and Daniel in chapter two had told Nebuchadnezzar about his dream. In his dream, he saw a statue made of different materials, with the head made of gold. Daniel told him, "Nebuchadnezzar, you are the head of gold. Your kingdom, Babylon, is the head of gold."

Nebuchadnezzar probably thought, "Wow, that's the best one—the head of gold." The statue then went to silver, bronze, iron, and iron mixed with clay for the feet. This put something in his mind, and it says that the king made an image of gold, the height of which was 60 cubits (90 feet), and its width six cubits (nine feet). He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent word to assemble the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

He was having this big event, and everybody needed to come. If you had any kind of title in the kingdom, you better be there. Verse 3 states that the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the rulers of the provinces were assembled for the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. They stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the herald loudly proclaimed, "To you, the command is given, O peoples, nations, and men of every language, that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. But whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire."

Therefore, at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the horn, the flute, the lyre, the trigon, the psaltery, the bagpipe, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations, and men of every language fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. They all fell down when he struck up the band—all that is, except Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They didn't fall down. They didn't worship. The king found out about it and gave them another chance. They said to the king, in one of the greatest statements of faith in all of the Bible, "If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire. He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if he does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

Wow! They had faith that stood up to the fire. Their faith was fireproof. Now, here's our question for today: How can we have a faith like that? How can we follow in the footsteps of those three Hebrew guys? They're probably in their early 20s. One of the questions that comes up when you read Daniel chapter three is, where was Daniel? Why wasn't Daniel there? At this time, Daniel was probably the prime minister of Babylon. He wasn't there because had he been there, he wouldn't have bowed either.

One of the guys I studied mentioned that he thinks the reason Daniel wasn't there in chapter three is that the book of Daniel is all about Daniel. It's Daniel and his three friends—Daniel and his three sidekicks. You might think, "Well, it's Daniel that had all the faith, and he's just dragging these other guys along." So God sets it up to where Daniel's out of the picture, and it's the three other guys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who stand up and face the fire. They had faith too. It wasn't just Daniel's faith; it was their faith.

So how can we have a faith like that? A faith that stands up to the fire? A faith that, when you're tempted, you stand true to the Lord? A faith that, when all hell breaks loose in your life, you are still faithful to the Lord? A faith that pleases God in spades? Let me give you three steps to that kind of faith.

Step number one: First of all, you have to check your heart to make sure your faith is genuine. That's really simple. If you're going to have faith like they had faith, and faith to stand up when everything is going wrong—faith to stay true to the Lord even though everything around you is falling apart, a faith that doesn't crumble under pressure—you need to have genuine faith. It has to be true. You can't have a false faith. You can't have your dad's faith or your mom's faith or your grandpa's faith. It has to be your faith. It can't be secondhand faith; it has to be genuine, real, firsthand faith.

There's an old saying that says you can't make a silk purse out of a cow's ear, and you can't stand up when the fire is turned up unless you have a faith that is genuine and true. You must really and truly know the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul told the Corinthians, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves."

Speaker 1

You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, and the question posed today is, is it really possible that people who think they're Christians might not really be? Well, only God can answer that because he knows the heart of each of us. But the fruit of the spirit they show will be tremendously revealing to God for sure. Pastor Jeff returns to explain how you and I can be fireproof against the flames of the world and what it means to have genuine faith in just a moment.

Today you heard part one of the message called Fireproof. Hey, if you're fireproof against the schemes of the devil, then you are having a good life. The way the world describes the good life is something far removed from reality. When we let the fruits of the Spirit live inside and constantly exude from our minds and hearts and actions, wow, our life will be the godly life he created us to have. And it'll be a good life for sure. When that life is good because of what God has done in our hearts, our light will shine brightly.

Today's message, Fireproof, is one of six in Pastor Jeff's series, How to Live the Christian Life in an Unchristian World. You can get this single message, part one and part two, and the series when you go to fromhisheart.org and click the resource page. When you're there, we hope you'll consider a helpful gift from His Heart this month. As a listener-supported outreach, we depend on the support of our faithful listeners to supply the resources we need to broadcast on over 850 stations nationally and around the world each and every day.

If you'd like to join us this month with a gift of support of any amount to the ongoing and growing outreach of From His Heart, we'll send you our thanks, which is the new series from Pastor Jeff called This is Overcoming the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. It'll be a great blessing and inspiration to you. You can get it on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or MP3 download. Just request the series This is War when you go online to fromhisheart.org; it'll be featured right on our homepage or by calling 866-40-BIBLE. 866-40-BIBLE. And God bless you for supporting this worldwide outreach to a lost and a hurting world.

Now let's conclude part one of today's message called Fireproof. Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 2

Now here's the truth. In churches all over the country, we have people who gather Sunday after Sunday. And you know what? So many of them might be members of the church for decades, yet they don't have a genuine faith. They believe in Jesus all in their head. They believe in Jesus like we believe in George Washington. We don't doubt that he existed, but we're not trusting him for anything. George Washington hasn't changed my life. Has he changed your life? No. Nobody believes in George Washington for anything other than, yeah, we check him off in the history book. Of course he lived, and of course he was the father of our country, of course he was the first president. We see him on our bill, you know, but there's no trust in George Washington. And if you believe in Jesus like people believe in George Washington, well, that doesn't cut it.

Hey, talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. The real question is, do you have the real thing? If you're going to have faith like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you got to really look within and say, is my faith genuine? Have I really put my faith, my trust, my total surrender on the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the very first step. And many people haven't done that. And maybe you're here today and you haven't done it, but you can do it today.

Second step: you want to have a faith that stands up to the fire? You’re in a fiery furnace today. The second step is to make up your mind that disobeying God is not an option. Disobeying God is not an option. One of the key verses in the book of Daniel, as we're going through the sermon series "Shine: How to Live the Christian Life in an Unchristian World," is Daniel 1:8. Daniel made up his mind that he wasn't going to defile himself with the king's choice food. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego followed in Daniel's footsteps. They made up their minds they weren't going to do that either. They were going to obey God.

Jesus said this: "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things I say?" I mean, let's get real here. I'm not really your master, your lord, your boss, if you're not obeying me. And so the second step, the key step, is the step they made. They made up their minds they weren't going to disobey God. Disobedience to God was not an option for them.

Now here is their dilemma. They have been elevated. Remember chapter one of Daniel? They went through Babylonian graduate school. They were just kids. Their parents were part of the nobility in Jerusalem. When Nebuchadnezzar came into Jerusalem in 605 BC, he attacked the city and took back captives—about 75 or so, it is estimated—of these kids from the Jewish nobility. They came back with Nebuchadnezzar all the way, hundreds and hundreds of miles, back to Babylon. They went to Babylonian graduate school, where he was teaching them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans to use them in his kingdom and in his service.

At the end of the three years, he tested them, and there were no graduates like Daniel and his three friends. They were ten times better than everybody else. Why? Because God blessed them. Why? Because God blessed them. Because they made up their minds they weren't going to defile themselves with the king's choice food. They made up their minds they were going to be obedient to God. And so they were in a high position.

Then in Daniel chapter two, Daniel interprets the dream of the king, and he gets elevated to the top slot over all these other Babylonian whiz-bangs, you know, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers. All of a sudden, you have these Jewish guys that go up into the top slots. Daniel made sure, because Nebuchadnezzar really liked Daniel. He was like, "Man, that guy, he's got a God that reveals and knows secrets and mysteries. I need to put him up there in the top slot." So Daniel became prime minister. And Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, "Hey, my three friends that you know as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they need to come up too." So the king promoted those guys up too into a high position in Babylon.

And so here they are, and they're in some pretty tall cotton. All of a sudden, they're put in a situation where they're supposed to bow down to this image. Well, that's a problem for them. You know why? It's because of the first commandment of the Ten Commandments. The Lord says this: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not worship them or serve them." God says there shall be no idol worship. That's the very first of the Ten Commandments. It's not ten suggestions; it was the Ten Commandments, and it was written by the finger of God in stone. They knew that.

They said, "Nebuchadnezzar is asking us to bow down to the statue to worship and serve his 90-foot tall, 9-foot wide statue. I'm not gonna do it. I can't do it." There was pressure, but they said, "Hey, we have a made-up mind. Disobeying God is not an option."

Now for you and me today, what do we need to do? We need to choose to obey, regardless of the pressures. You're going to feel pressure to disobey God. You're going to feel pressure to go the way of the world because the world exerts pressure, and there are pressures that we feel. They had pressures too.

Now, what are some of the pressures when you talk about pressures to go the way of the world? Well, first of all, notice that there will be pressure from your thoughts—internal pressure. You say, "What is that pressure from your thoughts?" That's when you begin to rationalize things. You're up against it, and all of a sudden, you start thinking through some things. You know, it's kind of like in the movies. Sometimes you see somebody tempted, and boop, there pops up an angel on this shoulder, and boop, there's a devil on this shoulder, and back and forth. That happens inside a mind because the devil begins to work to throw thoughts in our minds, to say, "Listen, you need to come compromise here."

Here are some of the thoughts, no doubt, that went through their minds. Well, man, I don't have a lot of choice here. You know, Shadrach maybe said to Meshach and Abednego, "I mean, what are we going to do here? He said if we don't bow down, we're going into the furnace of blazing fire. And hey, we know that that tall statue, that's nothing; that's not God. And so you know what? We can just bow down and worship Yahweh God and just bypass that God. But we can just, you know, be inconspicuous. Because if we stand up where everybody's bowing, it's really hard to blend in, you know, and so we're gonna stick out like a sore thumb. And so we can just do that. And after all, you know, the Lord's planted us here to be a witness. And what kind of a witness can we be if we're dead? And so surely God doesn't want us to be dead."

And, you know, they start to rationalize. You and I are faced with that all the time—rationalization. There's pressure from within. And one of the questions that can come up, especially for businessmen, is if they feel pressure to cheat, to cut corners, to do this to get ahead or do that to get ahead. You're selling something, and, you know, there's a problem with this house or this car or this item or whatever, but you don't tell the customer that. Why? Because you say, "Well, that could butcher the deal. That could sabotage the deal. And I don't want him to know that."

And so, yeah, I know I probably should tell him. But, hey, after all, a man's gotta live. No, he doesn't. A man doesn't have to live, but a man does have to die and stand before God and give an account of his life. A man has to do that. Hey, there's pressure from within. They felt it. You feel it. I feel it. Pressure in your own thoughts.

Secondly, there's pressure from your peer group. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Remember, I told you those three guys, plus Daniel, were part of a group of about 75 Hebrew boys their age that were taken to Babylon. And all the other guys bowed. All those other guys in chapter one ate the king's choice food, that was sacrificed to idols and his wine. And these guys have come out from among them, and they're being separate. But there's a lot of pressure—peer pressure.

Because when there are a multitude of people and the band starts up with all the different instruments, everybody hits the deck because Nebuchadnezzar said, "Do it." And if you didn't do it, you went in the furnace of blazing fire. And so there was lots of pressure—pressure from the peer group, pressure probably from the other Jews as they were bowing down and saw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego standing up. They're like, "Get down! You guys need to get down. You're gonna get in trouble. Big time trouble." Peer pressure.

Speaker 1

Peer pressure can be one of the most influential inducements to giving in to the pressures around the believer. Well, we're not finished with the message that was just started today. Be with us tomorrow as we continue to learn how to be fireproof. The message is available to listen to again. Download a copy of today's broadcast or any broadcast and also the entire series when you go to fromisheart.org.

Well, we close out today with an appropriate and timely scripture to remember. Isaiah 43:2 tells us, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you." What a timely scripture.

Next time, we hope you'll join us here on From His Heart for part two of Fireproof. That's Tuesday, when we open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His heart.

Speaker 2

From his heart.

Speaker 1

From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more. Go to fromisheart.org.