 We've been in a series starting last month called New Year, New You and we talked about the first message was about fasting and prayer and As you receive the booklets right now, we make them available We we are so proud of our church for being a praying church a fasting church Amen, so excited for that and then week after that we talked about the practical part of taking care of our health and Maintaining good diet. We also talked about the importance of giving God our Finances and making him the first in our finances anybody has done that in their life We also last week talked about the importance of Relationships and how isolation and toxic people can bring you down in life and this morning We're gonna bring the series to a series finale with a message about the furnace of life and I believe that we have to address this issue About human suffering. It's a question everyone has who are believers and unbelievers as of last month in the world over 322 people were killed for the sake of just because they followed Christ They didn't do anything wrong outside of the fact as they follow Jesus 214 churches have been destroyed last month because they were churches serving Christ around the world 272 forms of abuse and torture has been done to Christians from kidnapping rape Cutting body parts out to destroying people physically have been done to Christians all around the world in just last month the statistics says that 250 million Christians face high persecution with 100 million of those living in Asia alone and I'm not talking about persecution where you know when we Were in Ukraine they made fun of us during the class because we were Christians It was public the teacher actually made us publicly made fun of us and that was that was normal We actually didn't expect anything better. I'm not talking about that I'm talking about persecution where you get kicked out of school where you lose your job Well, you cannot get admitted to college persecution where you get dragged to court for no reason you get sentenced to jail 250 million Christian last month faced that So I understand we love prayer line and we love to come through, you know for breakthrough and everything but there are certain suffering that will happen on this earth and I'm not talking about their suffering that comes from Adamic suffering because Adam committed sin stuff happens on earth now There is a suffering the devil the devil brings afflicting us with sickness and pain We got to resist that and come against that But there is a suffering that will happen because you follow Jesus Christ and see some of us in here We don't know what that is Because the only suffering we know is when we make a mess out of our life and Some of us we need to praise a God at least let me once in my life suffer for doing something right Let me once in my life go through something and some of you the only suffering we get is when we push the plate And the King's stomach starts to throw a fit and we're like man. I'm going through suffering You know at least we're going through something The suffering is real coming from a family where my ancestors set in jail and they were dragged Physically and beaten and died days later from Damages under physical body because they followed Christ the topic of suffering is is not Stretched to me and to my Christian faith knowing my parents my grandparents who were not allowed to meet like we meet today And send mass text messages and say we meeting on Sunday They had to switch location of the services right before the service of the KGB wouldn't find it They had to be baptized at night and they had to be baptized in a cold Reverse not in the warm so warm the price and almost got cooked one time It was so hot water in the church and these are the things that we come from and today I want to bring the topic of the fact that Suffering is part of life on this earth especially for follower of Jesus Christ I know I'm not gonna get a lot of amends for that food. So if some of you are here still with me I want you to not say amen. Well, let's talk The Calvary is a picture of suffering because on the Calvary there was three crosses The first cross was the cross of a rebel The second cross was the cross of the Redeemer and the third cross was the cross of the redeemed On the Calvary there was a sinner who was suffering. There was a saint who was suffering And there was a savior who was suffering Three kinds of people live in this world. There are sinners. They will suffer Sometimes people think if I get away from God, I will avoid suffering Actually, you will also find suffering on this earth, but the worst part is this suffering is just a trailer It's a preview of the eternal suffering that will happen after you die the second suffering is The Savior was experiencing suffering for us as Christians this means that any time I am suffering as a Christian I am never alone Because Jesus went through suffering and as I am suffering. He is with me in that suffering When Joseph was in jail the Bible says the Lord was with Joseph right there in jail Bible says if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me not outside of the valley waiting and applauding me God is with me in the valley as I go through it. Savior is also in the suffering I Gotta remind each one of us God chose suffering as a way to redeem us if Jesus wouldn't suffer on the cross There will be no salvation So Savior suffered and there's a third sufferer on the Calvary. He is the saint a Brand-new believer a brand-new convert. He was the person who got there as a rebel and Something happened. He became redeemed and that's us as followers of Christ sometimes we end up on our hill of Calvary in our life and we are Christians and we are suffering Many times the Lord removes that and gives us freedom and deliverance and does an incredible miracle But there are moments when God takes the time and while you are in that season of pain He transforms you He changes you. He didn't cause that pain, but he says since you're in it. It's since you in it. Let's use it To blame God for the suffering in the world is like blaming the secretary of transportation of state for all the accidents on the road It's not wise the only way the secretary is the secretary of transportation can remove the accidents is to not let you have a license The only way God can remove all the suffering on earth is to take your free will and which will no longer make you a human agent As long as there is free will there's gonna be choices and there will be consequences and these consequences will affect each one of us But God says if you follow me, I will in the midst of this suffering Recycle it for my glory for those who love me and are called by my purpose I will make everything work for their good. See this guy who's been on a cross He got redeemed. He only stayed there for about few hours, and then he went to a new level in life called paradise What I love about the Christians when we go through suffering unlike the people who don't serve Christ We see suffering as a platform not our prison After our suffering we see a new level in life for Joseph It was a palace for this guy. It was a paradise, but either way we don't stay in suffering We always go to a new level whether in this life or in the next Come on somebody Satan will use suffering to make us bitter. God will use it to make us better Satan will use suffering to define us. God will use it to refine us Satan will use it and says that's it. You're not coming out of this and you said listen watch me devil I'm gonna step over this and I'll step into a new season in my life. I like what he did Jake said He said when you're born, you're like a key with no cuts in it as you go through life each wound Each failure each hurt cuts into that strip of metal and One day there is a clear click Your pain has formed the key that slips into the lock that unlocks your future T.D. Jakes is so powerful. You can read his quote and everybody claps after that Let's open our Bible this series has been based in the book of Daniel Daniel chapter 3 verse 17 and verse 18 If this is the case our God whom we serve Is able somebody say able somebody say our God is able and They're saying if this is the case our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace And he will deliver us from your hand, okay? But if not somebody say if not come on somebody say if not If not let it be known to you, okay? That we do not serve your gods Nor we will worship the gold image which you have set up They made up their mind right away. They said God is able and he will What if he doesn't will still won't worship you? We will still worship God What if he doesn't we will still be a church? What if he doesn't I'll still tied I'll still fast I'll still pray I'll still love my family. I'll still go after God Devil is furious when he finds out that you don't serve God for stuff, but you serve God for God Come on somebody Verse 25 of the same chapter so this is after they've been in the furnace already the king says look he answered I see four men loose Walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt and the form of the fourth man is like the son of God Yes, somebody say amen Sometimes God delivers you from the furnace fire Other times he makes you fireproofed And that's what the message is gonna be about today Sometimes God delivers you from it But as a Christian I want you not to limit God only to getting you away from it If God sees it fit or in his sovereignty permits and allows you to go through things They cannot be explained by a simple theological doctrinal statement on suffering trust in God to make you fireproofed and That when you go through that fire furnace the kings and the different people will see that and they will call you out And they will see things about your life. They would otherwise have never seen I want to I want to share with you three insights of What it's like to live or going through the furnace of fire The first one is if you want to be purified by the furnace of life You first have to be consumed by the fire of God The Bible says not only these three boys went through the furnace the men who threw them into the furnace Before even they got out from there. They already died because the flame of that fire was so strong Why did they die? I think I have a theory See the furnace of fire happens to everyone But some people get burned by it others get purified in it and The question now is this how can I go through stuff in my life without getting burned? Have you met people who got burned people who get burned serving God people who get burned in their marriage people who get burned in the job? trusting people they get burned and Why do we get burned because I feel like sometimes? God is only like a shower for us. It's only cleansing, but if God becomes the something that consumes your life Nothing in this world can burn you only purify you You can kill a dead man When you already dead in Christ everything else in life, it will be painful. It will still not make sense You will still feel the uncertainty But you won't be burned by it Why because something else already consumed you and that's something else is much stronger than any sickness much stronger than any death much stronger than anything in your life God's fire is so much stronger than the death of a loved one God's fire is so much stronger than the rejection of the people you trusted in God's fire is so much stronger than any demonic activity or any demonic torment in your life And you have to ask yourself a question today. Are you dating God or are you consumed by God? Because when you're consumed by God Any fire the devil throws you in it only purifies you it can't consume you because you've been consumed You've been consumed These men could not be burned by fire because they already got burned by a greater fire That's why they refuse. How do I know they were consumed because whatever your worship consumes you? How do you get consumed to a point a whatever I worship consumes me? Many people love God, but they really worship money But they really worship success But they really worship good status and when things get pulled from under their feet for temporary They lose their traction because God is not someone that consumes them. God is someone that just cleanses them It's good to be cleansed by God, but it's better to be consumed by him My Bible makes me to understand God is a consuming fire Means if he comes into your life, he wants to consume you Paul says I have only one life and that life is Christ That's why jails didn't cause Paul to drop the towel and give up on Christ. They beat him so many times He got shipped back. He got beaten rejected and he's still at the end of his life. He says I kept my faith I fought a good fight. Why I've been consumed by God Some of us sometimes we had a little bit of mistreatment and we said that's it I quit I give up and I'm not belittling anybody It's not that you're not committed to God. It's not that you're not hard-working It's that your passion for Christ and the passion of Christ in you needs to grow Are you with me? I want you to write this down We need to stop using God as a means to a goal. We gotta make him our goal One of the reasons people use God as a means to a goal in Reality God is only a method that they used to achieve something very important in their life God is worthy to be the most important thing and to be the ultimate goal of your life When God is the goal you don't use him you worship him see Moses He's seen the glory of God. He's seen the miracles He's seen the deliverance and he used that as a means to know God more many of us would use God To get something from God because that is our goal and when that is your goal not God when the trial happens It begins to hurt you, but if God becomes the goal the trials Purify you they they refine you and they make you stronger and better for God God says to Abraham He says Abraham walk before me and be blameless For I am your shield and Your exceedingly great reward if you want God to be your shield make him your reward If you want God to protect you make him your goal Make him why you fast make him why you pray make him why you come to church make him why you serve when you make him Your goal he becomes your shield Come on somebody He becomes your shield remember Part-time Christian cannot defeat a full-time devil You know why you have to be sold out to Christ because the devil is sold out to destroy you Devil is not an apart time devil is not an o'clock, and then he gives up devil is relentless That's why you got to be passionate and because the devil is here That means you got to be sold out to Christ only then only then the furnace will purify you only then only then In order to be cleansed by the fires of life you got to be consumed by the fire of God That's why you got a fast That's why you got to pray That's why you got to get on your face before God and not care what you're wearing and what is looking at you And that's why you got a person to repress through the opinions of people and what people have done Why because you got to understand life is not fear Devil is crouching at every opportunity to destroy you and you got to know the only way to beat him at this game It's to be consumed by something stronger greater and eternal and that is the Holy Ghost Hallelujah somebody say hallelujah Somebody say praise the Lord Anybody here who says you know what I need to be consumed by the fire of God I need to surrender my life totally. I need to stop playing games with God I need to be sold out to Christ. Come on somebody. Let's give Jesus a round of applause. Let's give God the glory Let's give God the glory. Let's give him the other. Let's give him the worship. Oh, yes We worship you Lord we worship you come on. Let us take next 30 seconds and you say Lord I want to be fully committed to you God. I don't want to play games. God. I want to be sold out Lord I want to make you our goal. I want to make you why I serve Lord The reason why I got burned is because I served you I serve the ministry But I want to be consumed by you now God come on open up your lips right now Open up your spirit right now begin to say God consume me consume me Lord Consume me Lord. I don't want to be burned by the ministry. I want to be consumed by the spirit of the living God In Jesus mighty name say consume me Lord. Say consume me Holy Spirit In Jesus name we may take our seats In order to survive the furnace Not only you got to be consumed by something bigger and stronger than the problems of life And that is God you can't be a part-time Christian beating a full-time devil Devil is sold out on destroying you if you're not sold out to Christ He will get you and if you can blame it on people you can blame it on your church and your ex-husband and your ex-wife You can blame it on anybody but the reality is it's hard to kill a dead man And when you are dead to your old self something happens He cannot do anything bad, but except actually elevate you to a new season The second thing that I want us to see in this story is the faith is not absence of doubt It's refusal to bow to the negative images set up by the enemy Faith is not absence of doubt. It's refusal to bow down to the images of the devil that he sets up using our Circumstances using the doctor's report using what's happening to us using our own feelings The devil paints an image in our mind and he wants us to bow to that image Many people the reason why their faith struggles is because they think that faith is just pure Confidence in God without any even shadow of doubt To have doubt you first have to have faith Why because faith is doubt is questioning your faith. You can't have faith You can't have doubt if you never had faith And so the devil says you lost your faith because you have doubts and devil actually the reason why I have doubt is because I got my faith And I will feed my faith and my doubt will die Let's do maybe just a little bit less little bit less drums. It's just more more music. Yes. I want you to write this down Doubt is not absence of faith. It's questioning of faith doubt is questioning what you believe unbelief is determined refusal to believe See doubt is questioning unbelief is your determined not to even believe doubt is a struggle faced by the believer Unbelief is the condition of the unbeliever and these exist also in our app and their notes and will be with the message as well Doubt says I can't believe I need more proof unbelief says I won't believe in spite of the evidence Doubt is honest unbelief is stubborn Doubt is looking for the light unbelief is content in the darkness Doubt is born out of a troubled mind and a broken heart unbelief is just an act of the will I Want to give you a freedom this place today that freedom that of this revelation gave me I struggled with my faith because I always tried to fight my doubts because I thought the presence of doubts Contaminates my faith and I can't operate in my faith to pray for other people and to be used by God because I feel Doubt and then when I started to learn this truth I felt that as long as I spoon feed my faith Not spoon feed my doubt but try to deal with them. I leave my doubts alone I just don't feed them and anything you don't feed stars Anything you feed will begin to grow and I feed my faith by surrounding with other believers I feed my faith by looking back at what God has done instead of fixing my eyes and what he has not done I feed my faith by reminding myself of what God's word says instead of what the king Babylon paints in front of my mind Because the Babylon will tell you Use images and the Babylon will tell you threats and paint a worst case scenario in your mind of what will happen to you If you don't bow to this image Faith is not absence of doubt Faith is just refusing to worship the reality and your circumstances It's not rejecting the reality. It's not rejecting doctors report. It's you have to be respectful to the medical Personnel it's refusing to let that take over the word of God That's why the Bible says that we cast down Imaginations why imaginations because the devil brought an image that slipped into your mind and became Imagination means it's how you imagine things will turn out if nothing happens We cast down Imagination and every wrong thought into obedience of Jesus Christ Come on somebody Are you with me? We cast down imaginations and the Bible says and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ We have to understand Number B under point two is that faith and fear have one thing in common They both ask you to believe in something you cannot see Faith and fear have something in common they both ask you to believe in something you cannot currently see It takes same energy to have faith as there is to have fear Because fear you don't see it. It's always faith Faith and fear is like the gears in your car when you get in the car There is the reverse and there is the drive it takes same amount of time and takes same amount of energy to switch between the two While it doesn't take you much to switch it determines a different direction Because reverse does not go forward and driving does not go backwards See when you release your imagination and you begin to imagine the worst-case scenario You begin to imagine your funeral you begin to imagine your divorce you begin to imagine your bankruptcy You begin to imagine that you will never be accepted you begin to imagine you'll never get married You'll never have kids life will never experience a breakthrough. You are actually switching to reverse And you don't even know if that's gonna happen But when you switch to a drive Instead of looking at the images given to you by the devil That are taking clues from your current situation You're looking at the images given to you by Jeremiah What is this for I know the thoughts that I think of you says the Lord the thoughts of good and not of evil to give you Hope and to give you future And you see devil I don't reject the fact that I got tumor I don't reject the fact that I got arthritis in my Jones I don't reject the fact that I've been divorced. I don't reject the fact that my company is laying off people I don't reject the fact that my child left me and doesn't want to talk to me But I choose not the reality to be the image I worship at the word of God For I know the thoughts that I think of you says the Lord the thoughts of good and not of evil to give you Hope and to give you future and that is my image. It will go into my mind as a stronghold and That's faith the Bible says faith is a substance where substance is is It's like a title deed. It's it's a substance of things hoped for Faith is not what you're afraid of It's what you want to happen in your life Faith is what I want to happen and God's word paints me the image and I carry the reality I don't worship the image is set up by the devil because I am busy Carrying the substance of the word of God in my spirit Come on somebody anybody got faith in this room Come on somebody if I can ask my brother to come and give me I want to use an illustration What matters is not where your life is being pulled to right now What matters is where you are being pointed to right now? Sometimes life pulls you in the reverse But you still got to be pointed forward Sometime life Goes opposite you believing in God and instead of getting promoted you get thrown into the furnace of fire You're believing in God in a dream But instead of going further you're getting further away life is like like Arching This this is you this is each one of us. This is God His big hair and this is life and The question now I have for you is where is your faith pointed to Because your life right now can be going backwards You can't control that Your boss is pulling you backwards your spouse might be pulling you backwards You're your job your ministry and maybe even the people pulling you backwards and you feel like man But God promised me the future never be afraid when your life is going backwards You can't control that what you can't control is where your mind and your focus is pointed to Come on somebody Because if you are in the hands of God Remember you're only anchored in life But you are really in the hands of God and if God is the one that holds your life Even if you're going backwards and you point it forward Your setback is actually a setup Come on Why because no arrow can fly forward without being pulled backwards Sometimes the devil will think that you're gonna go backwards But in reality in life is exactly the same way when the brothers Rejected Joseph they thought they're destroying him but see what they miscalculated is Joseph was in the hands not of destiny But of God God calls the shots God holds my life not your boss Not your ex not your life not your doctor not even your pastor You are in the hands of God and even if you're going backwards as long as your mind is forward Your sickness might be increasing in your body, but you have to mentally say but I'm getting healed But I'm getting healthy your money is decreasing your money is going backwards But your mind has to be forward that God is my shepherd and I shall not lack Whatever you're being pulled back to does not matter what matters is where you point it to right now When our church was getting smaller at one particular time We never stopped our confession there were thousands locally and millions globally we prophesied We spoke people said but the church is shrinking things are not happening at the time See it doesn't matter where we being pulled to because the further we get Backwards from our vision as long as we point it in the right direction and in the hands of God it actually will give us speed Speed toward our future. Thank you. Thank you Come on somebody are you with me? Church did you receive something in their conclusion? I want you to write down just just simple tips God will use your story to reveal his glory God will reveal his glory through your story The God's name was so exalted in Babylon when these boys came out from the fire that the king made a law and the law Wasn't to respect God. He says if you disrespect God that people will be not only tried in court They will be cut in the half there has never been a revival in the earth where blaspheming God's name gets you killed and There has never been a revival in the earth. We're not honoring God's name get your house burned not sold burned This is how big the revival happened only after the boys came out of the furnace See God is not just interested to get you out of whatever you in so that you go to a new level is so that God's glory Goes to a new level God needs your story to reveal his glory. Come on somebody But I want you to also write this down God's glory is not revealed when you go to the furnace It's when you come out of it Because strongest man of Babylon went to the furnace God's glory wasn't revealed because they never came out of it and see by not You have to come out of whatever you're coming okay came into whatever you are in you got to come out of it Because that's where God's glory is revealed I want you to also to see is that before you can get out from your furnace You have to get up in your furnace see the Bible says that they were thrown into the furnace means they fell there and Many people instead of taking time to get up. They're busy blaming people who threw them into the furnace They're busy cursing suing and cussing and and doing all this stuff. I'll pay him when I succeed I'll do this and I'll do that you don't have time for that they throw you in there But right now you got to get up you got to forgive them and you got to forgive yourself Even if you fell there because of your mistake forgive yourself Get up if you want to get out some of you are so focused on getting out God says let's start with the first step Get up God says the first step get up means start walking again start loving again start serving again Go finish your education. Come on during the gym. I want you to start with me. Get up But my ex but that person it's been 20 years ago Get up if you want to walk out of the furnace you got to learn to walk in the furnace You know what caused the name of God to be seen is not when they laid around They're crying and sobbing these guys were boss They're like the guys threw us in we're not wasting any time. We're gonna burn some calories Imagine in the fire. I mean imagine the boldness you got to have imagine I mean see you can be pitiful or powerful, but you can't be both and many of us when we're in the furnace We're just sitting there because somebody get us out. These guys were not waiting for a call They're like while we're here Let's get acquainted with the area and as they're walking the Bible says there was a fourth man with them See sometimes when you cannot get out learn to walk in it Learn to be the best you are in it maximize your moment in that area be the best you can be I know It's not where you belong But it's also where you have to learn to try, you know, this is not what we're gonna be guys This is not what we belong But that doesn't mean we shouldn't take care of this area and this season and this building and this season and stage of Our church right now. We got to learn to walk in this furnace before God takes us to another level You got to learn to walk in your furnace before God takes you to another level You got to learn to do this and as you walk few things happen Jesus is seen the Bible says the robes They were tied with were removed it speaks of a mindset God begins to change your mindset from where you were to where you Actually headed and then when they came out they smelled no fire Some people are stuck because this thing it's normal to smell From where you came from, but it's supernatural when you go through that and you don't smell Why because God didn't kill the fire, but he didn't let the fire rub off on you And you come out of divorce or maybe you came out of a broken relationship Or maybe you came out of a really bad abuse, but you don't talk like an abused person You don't look like an abused person. You don't spend money like an abused person You don't spend your time like an abused person. You have no smell of fire around you because God didn't protect you from the fire He cleans you from the smoke. He purified you from the smoke Somebody's getting free today from their smoke. You're not gonna stink like your past Come on somebody hallelujah. Thank you for watching this content I hope this was a blessing to you if you're like me and you like to click on things Click on this subscribe to our channel and the content will come to you every time we post it And remember the best is yet to come