 This morning, I want to draw your attention. This is part three of our series in Daniel, entitled Stronger. And we're looking at chapter three this morning. And the title of the message I'm gonna bring to you is All Fall Down. All Fall Down. You probably know the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or if you grew up in the 90s, Rack, Shack, and Benny, and the Veggie Tale version. And we're gonna take a look at this story. And we're gonna read several verses this morning. So I want you to follow along. If you have your Bibles, great. If not, it's gonna come up on the screens, beginning in verse number one. It says, King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its breadth, six cubits. So that's 90 foot by nine feet wide. He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. And then King Nebuchadnezzar sent together all the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all of the other officials of the province to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all of the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up and the herald proclaimed aloud, you are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, dragon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, that you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning furnace. Therefore, as soon as all the people heard the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the people, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Verse number eight, therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared to the King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever. You, O King, have made a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And there are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O King, pay no attention to you and they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the King and Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up. And now if you're ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, and a partridge in a pear tree. And every kind of music to fall down and to worship the image that I have made, well good, but if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace, and who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? Verse 16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the King, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. And if this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O King. But if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. This is the word of the Lord. This is, I believe, one of the most pivotal stories for believers in our current day in much of the Old Testament. Now, that's saying a lot because there's a lot of stories that have application to us. But this particular story, I believe, in Daniel, and in fact, the book of Daniel, I think is a prototype and a blueprint for how you and I as disciples of Jesus live in the middle of what really is a Babylonian culture and how we do it and remain strong in our faith, vital in our relationship with Jesus without compromising. This particular story is one of the apexes of Daniel's story. It's easy for us, however, to read much of, especially the Old Testament, and really it's true Old New Testament. We read these stories and oftentimes we think to ourselves, man, am I glad I did not live in Babylon? You know, man, am I glad that I was not one of these Hebrew noble of royal descent young people that was captured by Nebuchadnezzar, taken out of Judea, made to march 650 miles across the Middle East to Babylon. Man, am I glad that I was not reeducated in one of the reeducation camps of Babylon like they were. Man, am I glad that I did not have my identity as a follower of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God Yahweh. I'm so glad that I was not forcibly given a new name and a new identity. I'm so glad that I was not made a eunuch. Most likely when you, if you really look at Daniel chapter one, you see that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and Daniel, when they were brought into Babylon, they were put under the chief of the eunuchs, the man who was a eunuch himself, but then was in charge of all the eunuchs. How many know if you do the math, if you have a guy who is a eunuch who's over all of the eunuchs and you're put under him, that means you're going to be a eunuch. And if you're like, right now, I don't know what a eunuch is, let me describe what a eunuch is to you. It is taking a male and emasculating him so that he cannot live, sexually, reproduce, procreate, or enjoy sex. And they did that on purpose because they wanted to take that drive out of you and wanted to take the risk of reproduction out of you to cut off your line and your lineage and make you basically a roba. And so some of us might listen or think about that, read that and go, I'm so glad that I'm not Daniel, I didn't get a new name, I wasn't taken away from my home, I didn't watch my place of worship and my place of lineage destroyed. I wasn't emasculated as a eunuch. I wasn't given a brand new name and I didn't find myself living in a pagan society, that is, Babylon was the most powerful empire that the world had ever seen up until this point, most powerful military, but also the most powerful economy and the most powerful and most prolific, spiritual, paganistic witchcraft environment. One of the largest libraries in the world was founded at Babylon and Babylon actually became the seat from which in much of human history, witchcraft, incantations, astrology, and worship of idols, spiritism was birthed there. But it was also a very metropolitan city. So as these guys are marched into the city reeducated for three years in a reeducation camp, given new names associated with Babylonian gods, they were made into eunuchs and they're in the city with some of the most wonderful architecture, wealth, culture that the world had ever seen. And Babylon did that on purpose because their desire was when you bring people from these other empires and other faiths and other religions and we bring them here, what we're going to do is we're going to drown their identity, drown their faith so that they assimilate into our culture and if the nobility and influencers will assimilate then their cultures will eventually die and Babylon will become the dominant culture. It's easy when you think about those things to think to yourself, man am I glad I don't live in Babylon or do you? Or do you? Because what I want to focus on this morning more than the actual act of defiance although that's significant is I want to talk about the source behind the challenge, the idol and the command to bow down to it because what we find in Daniel it's easy to look at it and go well it's just kind of the story about these historical young people in this historical context of this kingdom, we don't live like that anymore, come on we're 21st century North American, westernized, we're sophisticated, we're educated, we've evolved, we're much more tolerant, there's never that kind of pressure, we live in a Christian nation and life is good for us and so yeah maybe there's some little moral principles that we can pull out but that's about it, I want to challenge you today, what if, without you necessarily even knowing it, you're living in what they call in the movie The Matrix, the world pulled over your eyes and what if without you knowing it you actually do live in Babylon? What would that do to your faith? Do you know that Babylon actually is more in biblical terms is actually more than a historical empire? It's actually a spirit that's been at work, the spirit of Babylon has been at work in the earth since the very beginning and according to the Bible it will be at work in the earth throughout all of human history until the day that Jesus Christ returns to fully consummate his kingdom on the earth and make all of his enemies his footstool. It's more than a historical empire, even though the empire has changed and by the way when you read the book of Daniel it's very interesting because it talks about two major kingdoms, it talks about Babylon and then Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom was overcome by a superior kingdom which was the Persian empire and if you don't know right now those two empires are still in the news, they're just called Iraq and Iran. Isn't that interesting, it's still very much at work. I want to challenge you this morning that the spirit of Babylon is actually bigger than the empire of Babylon and it's the spirit of Babylon that was actually motivating Nebuchadnezzar to establish this idol and to require everybody to worship it and if it's a spirit that inspired it not just some extinct empire, that spirit that began in Genesis is actually still at work today and will be all the way through the book of Revelation from Genesis the first book through Revelation the last book and all 63 or 64 books in between. Where is it found? Well number one it starts in Genesis chapter 11. You know God creates the heavens and the earth in six days he creates everything and his crowning achievement is he creates mankind. We know the fall took place when Adam and Eve committed high treason against God they embraced the word of the deceiver the aid of the fruit out of selfish desire and ambition everything got thrown into a tailspin death entered into the world but also that's the access point by which Satan, the devil, the liar and the deceiver got access into the earthly realm and began a project to build a counterfeit kingdom. That was the access point and we know that immediately evil began to proliferate in the earth so much so that God needed to destroy it that's what the flood was all about Noah and his descendants came out of it they were re-given what's called the dominion mandate which is to be fruitful and multiply and to kind of inhabit all the earth and so Shem, Ham and Japheth they begin to you know move in different areas and to migrate they begin to have children then we get to Genesis chapter 11 Genesis chapter 11 it says that the people on the face of the earth were growing and multiplying but remember they're sinful they're affected by sin they're so totally corrupted and depraved now that it says in Genesis chapter 11 instead of dispersing to the four corners of the world and doing what God had called them to do here's what they said they said in verse four come and let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top into the heavens 90-foot idol tower into the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed all over the face of the earth so the tower of Babel that's what it was called the tower of Babel and they began to build this tower they're pulling together creating a culture with mankind at the center of it that doesn't need God say we don't need God we'll build it for ourselves and we don't need his name we need our name our fame our glory for our pleasure and we don't need God to come down out of heaven we're actually gonna build a tower that will get us up to him and they were unified so much so that God had to come down and confuse their languages and scatter them because God even saw and communicates and this is a mind blowing statement but the Lord made it he said nothing shall be impossible for them so there's incredible human potential to build culture without God with man at the center of it so that it is actually successful but yet demonically inspired that's where Babylon started that was the spirit of Babylon it doesn't say it explicitly but I'll guarantee you the same spirit in the garden that said to Adam and Eve as God really said and the same deceiving serpent that said to Adam and Eve God's holding out on you he knows the day in which you eat of that fruit your eyes are gonna be open you're gonna be just like God and you're not gonna need God anymore is the same spirit that was gathering these people together to build a counterfeit spirit to build a counterfeit culture you might say well why would the devil wanna build a counterfeit kingdom well we'll come back to that in a moment but let me give you the end of it so we see the book of Daniel where that spirit of Babylon manifests itself in an empire, a military empire, political empire but if you go to the last book of the Bible the book of Revelation that talks about Jesus and his return and the kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdoms of our God and King it's the culmination of all things and it kinda takes history and shows us the cycle of man and Satan trying to build their empire but yet Jesus conquering and overcoming it's one of the last chapters of your Bible says in Revelation chapter 18 fallen, fallen is Babylon the great why is that? It's because the same spirit that tried to build the Tower of Babel the same spirit that erected an idol and required everybody to worship it will ultimately be the same spirit at the end of the age that is inspiring an anti-Christ counterfeit kingdom in the earth that Jesus will actually come and destroy in order to establish his kingdom it's still at work it's all throughout human history it just doesn't show up saying hi I'm the spirit of Babylon it shows up in all kinds of insidious ways it shows up in human culture it shows up in humanism it shows up in secularism it shows up in idolatry it shows up in human sinfulness it is a spirit and just like all spirits spirits are invisible to the naked eye we can only see the natural manifestations of them through culture and people's behavior now why would it be that Satan would want to build a counterfeit kingdom because you have to understand his number one desire Satan's number one desire is to destroy, remove and pervert the image of God off the face of the earth to go all the way back to the garden and I know this is Bible history I've got like four hours of information so it's kind of like on YouTube where you gotta hit that 1.5 speed I'm trying to talk as fast as I can I wish you all had USB ports in your neck that I could just like download but that's called the matrix it's only Hollywood it doesn't work you're just gonna have to listen so I got a lot of information listen but if we go back all the way to when God created the heavens and the earth he created mankind for one reason Genesis chapter one verse 26 says this let us make man in our and according to our likeness man was created by God as an image bearer that God would put into the earth to dominate and subdue the entire created world and created God bless you created order to bring it into submission to God and the only one who would be greater than man on the earth is the God who created it so God would come and communicate to man his desire and his will all mankind had to do was live in perfect harmony and relationship with God God would tell him what he needed to do God's word and he did that imperfect obedience and then man had the whole world and God's desire was he says I want you to be fruitful and multiply I want you to have kids and I want your kids to have kids and when you have kids you build families and families build communities and communities have schools and schools express their shared values by their arts and their communication and foreign politics and government that serves the people's interest and then I want you to cover the earth with this culture that is built around the presence of God the word of God so that the earth is filled with the image of God that was God's intent Satan just didn't show up just to tick God off by causing Adam and Eve to sin and he's kind of like, you know, there you go that's all that I've got no, he was systematic and I want you to know that Satan had a global long game end game that he was playing he needed an access point to build his counterfeit kingdom and what he needed to do in order to build his counterfeit kingdom on earth to be worshiped as God to be served by the angels in heaven and by the human beings that God created was he had to have an access point and then he had to pervert, remove and destroy the image of God off face of the earth so one of the first great commandments that God gives is you shall not create any graven images of anything on the earth and you shall not worship or serve them first commandment, no other gods number two, don't make any graven images don't worship and serve them don't take the name of the Lord God's name in vain what is all this about? it's about preserving God's image through God's people in the earth so that his kingdom can be fully established well, when you realize that the purpose that Satan had from the very beginning that was manifest in Babel in Genesis chapter 11 and is also manifest in Daniel in chapter one, chapter two, chapter three all the way through and even in the book of Revelation this is what he's doing this is what he's doing and the way that he does it is he begins to infect and shape and craft culture he uses culture as his vehicle it's interesting, you may not know this but the name Babylon in Hebrew comes from the root word that means confusion so when God confused the languages Babylon in the Hebrew language means or actually Aramaic, it means confusion but in Babylonian the name Babylon means the gate of the gods so literally Babylon wherever it manifests is actually an access point for spirit beings now I know some of you are like man didn't come to church this morning thinking I was gonna get an astrology and then you know, spiritism lesson but here's what I want you to ask yourself this question today if when we read the book of Daniel we see how Nebuchadnezzar dominated besieged and dominated every culture emasculated every culture reeducated every culture re-identified every person within the culture and dominated every facet of the culture to the point of erecting an image or an idol that required everyone to bow down to it if that is the strategy that the enemy took is it possible that the enemy is still working that same strategy even today and my answer to that is yes I got an announcement, you may not know it but you are living in Babylon you are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego you are Daniel and you may not know it because they don't erect it out in the plains of Kalamazoo but we have 90 foot by nine foot wide golden images all over the place idols all over the place in our culture and it may not be bagpipes and harps and all those other instruments that are listed there but there are sounds and there are voices and there is pressure that is being exerted even on the people of God just like in Daniel's day saying when you hear the sound, you better bow the knee it's happening today because listen, here's what the spirit of Babylon wants to do he wants to dominate every aspect of culture you can see it in the book of Daniel he affects their view of God it's no longer Yahweh the one true God now it is multiple different gods in our culture today it has affected the way that we view God in America, we want a God who is for us we want a God who will serve us and any God will do and in fact, you can have a plurality of God's but just don't have a God who expects anything out of you I'm preaching better than you're listening okay, number two in Babylon, the spirit of Babylon dominated sexuality made eunuchs out of them and if you look at our culture today the spirit of the culture today is actually affecting our viewpoint of sexuality in the beginning, God created them male and female, binary and today we're being told cast out binary there's a spectrum and you say, well that's just because of science that's not because of science that's because of spirits it's demonic, it's strategic and it's global today, in the very beginning God performed the first marriage God defined marriage he looked at Adam and he said I know exactly what you need and so he crafted a woman he, man, it's not good that man's alone he brought Sparky the dog and Chloe the cat and they were not suitable help means and we all know that a dog is man's best friend but it's not that good and we all know that cats are the first demonically inspired animals so, listen and so what God did was he said I'm gonna make perfect exactly what you need and he made woman and the reason why she's called woman is because when man saw her coming he goes whoa, man and so the name stuck she's called woman God performed the first marriage but now the spirit of Babylon wants to pervert, twist, change and alter the definitions of marriage it's not just because of a political right or a political left it's a spiritual issue think about money in our culture today we're told that money is the key to all happiness and success and I'll promise you it's not I've been to some of the poorest places on the face of the earth and some of the happiest people I've ever met but yet we're told that we bow down to the idol of money and we live our lives and we sacrifice our families and we cheat our way to the top and we make decisions about what is gonna be valuable to us all because of a green 90-foot idol politics, huh right there, man if you don't believe in the spirit of Babylon all you gotta do is look at politics today I mean that's Babylon to the nth degree arts, well I've gotta give expression to whatever I feel, whatever is my truth art was created to reflect the beauty of God but the enemy who desires to pervert the image of God comes in takes something that God gave mankind within their culture affected by sin, twists it and perverts it to celebrate himself and even our view of mankind even our view of ourselves well you know what, I'm a good person you know what, I do more good than I do bad I'm a pretty good person I just believe in essence all people are good you know the Bible doesn't say that the Bible says that all people are actually sinful and we're broken and in our natural tendency we're spiritually dead but we put ourselves first we wanna build a name for ourselves where do you think the drive for fame at all costs comes from you can look at the celebrity culture that we have in our world today and all these people who've given their whole lives to build a platform and yet when they get there they self-destruct they become arrogant, they become proud they don't serve, they don't give back where did that come from it was a lie of the spirit of Babylon unless you think it's just people that have 400,000 followers on Instagram it's every single one of us we all are subject to ego and wanting to build our own platform and it's because at the end of the day we're just like Babylon let's build a name for ourselves let's build a city for ourselves where I'm at the center of it all these different aspects of culture arts, politics, marriage, family sexuality, money entertainment I mean all of these types of things and right now if you don't think all of those right now in our culture are being dominated they're being dominated by the spirit of Babylon you just may never have used that name but it's exactly what it is and the reason why the enemy's doing that it's not just so that he can win the culture game it's he understands that culture is the educational way that he reproduces his own image and so just like he reeducated Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and Daniel he's reeducating us do you know that right now this current generation they're estimating Gen Z will spend 70% of their life looking at a screen 70% of their lives looking at a screen what is that? I'll tell you what it is it's called discipleship disciple is a student in whatever we're studying we become a student of and what is connected to all of our screens I want you to do a little thought experiment right now think about Daniel think about Babylon think about that story in the Bible right now and add one modern piece to it add the internet to it what does that look like? Well I'll tell you what it looks like it looks like them being discipled for three years looking at an iPad it looks like them being in an educational system where they're self-studying it means that when the king says that everybody gathers and bows down to the idol it means it goes out in a mass Twitter everybody responds to it and if you don't like it if you don't affirm it or on Facebook you don't give it a like then they're coming after you that's what that looks like and I'm not saying anything look the internet in and of itself is not evil the internet in and of itself is a gift it's broad in fact it's actually I think prophesied in the book of Daniel very last book of Daniel talking about the end times that says and knowledge shall increase I think right now we have access to more information than we've ever had before when I was growing up and wanted to write a book report I had to go to the library and read the Encyclopedia Britannica today you can write it on your smartphone because you have access to the internet so what we don't wanna do is we don't reject the internet we don't reject the education system we don't reject politics we don't reject anythings things but we have to be sober minded about the spirit that is at work all around us that's demanding that we bow down to the images that it's put forth and what we do is we look at Daniel Shadwright Meshach and Abednego and it says that they went through the reeducation process they were given new identities they were made into Unix come on that's a stiff membership issue in order to get immigrate into Babylon I'm so glad that we don't have those those requirements they went through all of that but they also made a determination that they were not going to defile themselves and they found influence being a part of the Chaldeans the astrologers, the spiritual leaders and it was actually their devotion to Yahweh the devotion to God that got them into trouble when the idol was erected but yet they still were able to function within society without defiling themselves why were they able to do that because they had made a premeditated decision about their convictions about their identity and about what kingdom they were truly a part of a premeditated decision and so it begs the question for us today is your conviction within you stronger than the culture that surrounds you is your conviction about who Jesus is about God's word about how you handle money about your view of sex about your view of marriage and family and relationship about how important life is versus eternity are those shaped by convictions as a disciple of Jesus or are they shaped more by the spirit of Babylon because that's who we're being discipled by you wanna know who's disciple you are all you have to do is look at those areas of your life and find out who informs them more than the other you can say I believe in Jesus but does Jesus have permission to talk to you about sex you know what I'm a pastor and I'm so tired of hearing about young people who are going out on dates with another young person that's a Christian and on the first or second date they're trying to make some sexual move towards them you're not been discipled by the kingdom of God you've been discipled by Netflix and you've been discipled by a porn culture that views sex as a recreational activity like hot yoga sex is not a game of twister sex is a sacred bond between husband and wife your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit you've been called not to defile it and sin against your own body and what a whole generation doesn't understand is that when you have sex with somebody there's not just the physical coming together your spirit gets bond with their spirit and trying to undo that is like trying to unscramble eggs and so what we got is a generation that doesn't just have sexually transmitted diseases we got spiritually transmitted diseases but we got a whole generation that says oh I don't need anybody to tell me and put restrictions on my body and what I can do with my body I'm free I'm smart I'm educated and yet depression is on an all time high anxiety is at an all time high suicide rates are at an all time high divorce is at an all time high and yet we keep celebrating and bowing to the image that Nebuchadnezzar is establishing it's time for somebody to take a Shadrach, Meshach and a Bendigo posture in their life and say you can put up whatever idols that you want to and you can blow whatever horns that you want to but I'm not bowing down to your idol and if you wanna know who the God is that will deliver me from your hands his name is Jesus his name is Jesus but everybody else is bowing down to it I mean what happened I mean some people might get mad at me if they find out what I really believe good you need somebody to get mad at you you need some fiery trials in your life because trials actually reveal and refine your faith it's like going to the gym and pumping iron every time testing comes against you you may not like it you might sweat right through your Lululemon pants ladies but I'll tell you something your faith is gonna get stronger as you begin to stand up for Jesus we gotta be willing is your conviction stronger than the culture that's around you First Peter chapter four Peter writes to believers in the first century do not be surprised at fiery trials when they come against you to test you as though something strange was happening to you this should be normal but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's suffering that you may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed you see God's glory is revealed through you when in the face of fiery trials and persecution you actually don't bow God's glory is revealed his glory is revealed it's like what's up with this person what price are you willing to pay for Jesus that's just a question well I might get persecuted yep you might look can I actually correct that statement you will all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted that's what Paul told Timothy if you desire to live righteously in Christ Jesus you will experience persecution you're gonna be persecuted and being persecuted is not being blocked on Instagram or muted by some of us I mean I may not be nice but it's not necessarily high levels of persecution right now in China they are bulldozing churches they are collecting Bibles they are murdering Muslims in the furthest western provinces of China believers who sign petitions there are some states in China that have over 400 million surveillance cameras and right now they are associating what's called a social behavioral credit score according to your behavior that's being viewed by artificial intelligence when you do what the state wants you to do you get a higher score and you get greater privileges but people who resist the state people who won't recant their faith their score is going down and they can't even rent houses what's your conviction level but I might lose some relationships Jesus said you would I did not come to bring peace but I came to bring a sword to divide this from that why because of convictions because we will not bow to the culture you might lose your job ha you might lose some finances you might lose some opportunities but let me ask you a question is eternity worth it? I believe it is nobody in eternity is gonna look back on the 70, 80, 90 years of our life and go you know what I wish I'd not given as much to missions as I did or you know what I wish that I had not stood up as tall for Jesus as I did I wish I'd kind of gone with the flow a little bit more nobody in eternity after having seen Jesus and having put on the spectacles of eternity which gives us incredible perspective that only a sovereign God right now has nobody's gonna look back on our life and go I wish I had just kind of gone with the flow I wish I had compromised more I wish I had lived more for myself I wish nobody's gonna do that now in eternity we're gonna go I wish I had seen more I wish I had believed more I wish I had stood stronger I wish I had given more I wish I had eternity's gonna be worth it and this world will have seemed so small it's like man did that really happen? Yeah it happened but it was a test this world is training for our future reigning with Christ this world is a test how many remember that when it would come on your TV you know they would come on this is a test it is only a test of the emergency broadcasting system if there's were a real emergency the local authorities would come on and tell you what to do and then it would go eek eek eek eek anybody remember that am I just the only old person in the room it come on your TV this is a test it is only a test can I just tell you about your life right now this is a test it's only a test of the emergency refining process God is able to deliver us I love the end of the story the end of the story they say we're not gonna bow Nebuchadnezzar says good I'm gonna keep my word throws them into the fire in fact first he says I want you to stoke the fire seven times hotter the people who stoke the fire actually get consumed by the fire that's hot they throw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedna go into the fire at first, Nebuchadnezzar thinks well that's done messenger comes and says boss you gotta come see this what, what's up are they dead yet no, they're walking around in the fire and there's a fourth person in the fire walking around unbound and he looks like the son of God ooh, Jesus showed up in their fire we oftentimes think Jesus shows up in our best days we think that Jesus is closest to us when everything's going right for us we think that Jesus shows up the most when we're at peace with everybody but can I tell you in your hottest trial in your darkest moment when you think all hope is lost when everybody's turned against you when everybody is commenting about you is criticizing you when you think that you stand alone in the fire and you think you're gonna be consumed that's when Jesus is closest that's when he shows up unbound, walking around I don't know what he was talking to them about but I would have loved to have been privy to that conversation hey guys, just give it a minute it's a hot sauna just enjoy it for a second they're gonna open the door and then you guys are gonna step out don't worry, I got you and Nebuchadnezzar looks into what are you guys doing in there come out and they came out and they didn't even smell like smoke their garments were not singed now listen, I can't promise you that in this life you're always gonna come out of the fire unsinged but I can promise you an eternity, you will I can't promise you that if you give your life to Jesus he has a wonderful, easy comfortable, prosperous plan for your life that's an American gospel that doesn't translate and it's nowhere in the Bible if you follow Jesus you're gonna have some difficult days you're gonna have to stand up you're gonna have to make a determination I'm not living for the culture because I'm nobody's slave I'm gonna be a servant of Jesus and if nobody follows him I'm following him but if you make that determination I can give you one promise you will never stand alone because Jesus will always be the fourth man in the fire Jesus will always be there with you Jesus will give you peace unspeakable and full of glory Jesus will give you peace in the midst of the storm Jesus will stand with you even to your last breath and in eternity we will have the ability to stand on the other side of the two or the one way mirror that heaven has been looking through that the great cloud of witnesses have been looking through cheering us on in that moment we'll be able to see from the other side looking back on our history and our lives and we'll say it was worth it all what about you? What's your conviction? What's your conviction level? I wanna end with this story about a man church history that inspires me there was a time and there always has been times where there's been a price to pay for following Jesus and this is nothing new it just happens to be new for us in our culture today but make no mistake about it it's not ending, it's global, it's normal there was a man who was a leader in the church in the first few hundred years his name was Polycarp I love that name when Jane and I were first married and we had a cat, I named it Polycarp that's how nerdy I am Polycarp inspired me even back then Polycarp Fox's book of martyrs and some other historians believe was actually discipled by John the Apostle and he became one of the leading bishops at a time when Rome was persecuting believers all throughout the Roman Empire they would require you to burn incense to an image of Caesar all you had to do is say Caesar is Lord burn incense to it and you could have your business you could keep your house you could live your life nobody was gonna injure your family but as long as you refused to say Caesar is Lord you were in danger of prison at the least property confiscation possibly but more than likely death and first watching your family die Polycarp was an aged bishop probably in his late 80s, early 90s when they came for him they arrested him in this little cottage outside of the city that he had served as a bishop for many, many years when the Roman guards showed up at his cottage he requested, give me two hours to go into the other room and pray the host served the guards lunch and Polycarp went in the back room and prayed prepared his heart and then he said, I'm ready to go they put him in a carriage traveled about seven miles to an amphitheater where bloodthirsty anti-Christian population of Romans were waiting to see Christians martyred for their faith Polycarp was marched into the center of the arena and they put him up against a pole and they were gonna burn him alive they put wood around his feet that they were about to light and they were about to kindle and they went to tie his hands up and his response according to history was you don't have to bind my hands because it's not your ropes that buy me to this stake but my convictions and my love of Jesus and they said, all you have to do is recant old man and he said, how is it possible that I could turn my back on the one for all of these 80 plus years who has loved me, saved me and given his life for me and he held the pole, they lit the wood and when the flames began to consume his body instead of screaming for mercy he was singing hymns of praise and it so convicted the crowd that the roars and the chance died down to zero and the guard who had marched him to the stake converted on the spot I want that level of conviction Church, I can't promise you that I do I've never been put to that level of a test but here's what I know the desire of my heart, the passion of my heart is Jesus I wanna live for Jesus and I want the Holy Spirit that dwells on the inside of me to give me steel in my back and unbendable knees and deep conviction that no matter what spirit of Babylon or what its name is in any culture no matter what comes against us that my convictions about who Jesus is and about the word of God and about eternity are so strong that it doesn't matter how many horns they blow, how many bagpipes play how much pressure, how many other people bother me that I'm standing because here's what I know I may be the only one standing but in eternity I'm not standing alone the saints who have gone on before us the angels in heaven and even my savior Jesus is standing with me and the same is true for you believer you may find yourself living in a world in working in a job, going to a school surrounded by friends where nobody's standing for Jesus and the temptation is to let that spirit begin to reshape you, re-educate you, rename you and assimilate you into a Babylonian culture and I'm telling you resist submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you let God have your heart so totally that there is no place on the inside of you for compromise stand up with me this morning if you would Jesus we belong to you saved us redeemed us called us by name Lord, today we don't want the labels of this world we want the labels of heaven over our lives today right now in the name of Jesus I just tear off every label that the spirit of this age has put on your people some of us are bearing labels and identities that don't belong to us you're a new creation in Christ Jesus all things that pass away and behold all things have become new today I declare new creations over your people Lord today it's not just the labels but I pray for strength in our spirits to be able to stand strong in the face of this spirit of the age Lord we don't stand in fear we stand knowing that greater is He that's in us than He that's in the world and we may not be formed by the idols of this age and the spirit of this age God we want to be formed and fashioned by the spirit of the living God we want to be renewed by the Word of God we want to be reeducated in the kingdom of God and we want to be known as disciples of Jesus that love not their lives even unto death God would you do that in us before we go today with every head bowed and every eyes closed I sense the spirit of God in this room there's some of us two groups of people I think the Lord is highlighting this morning number one is you are here today and you have never surrendered your life to God and repented of your sin and asked Jesus the Son of God to save you you may have had a religious background you may have even believed in the existence of Jesus but I'm talking about you radically surrendering and inviting Jesus to be your Lord and your Savior today I want you to know He will He'll forgive your brokenness He'll forgive your sin He'll heal your heart He'll give you hope He'll put His Spirit on the inside of you and you'll go from being a slave to sin to becoming a child of God and you don't have to earn it you just have to receive it today Jesus has already made a decision that He will save you if you'll ask Him and today some of us in this room we need to be saved we need to be born again by the Spirit of God we need to receive eternal life the second group of people is you grew up in church you grew up maybe having a relationship or a faith in your heart that you held on to but you've been sucked into the current of Babylon Babylon has grabbed ahold of you reeducated you renamed you and reshaped your values but something right now is coming alive on the inside it's like, no, no, no I need to get back I need to serve Jesus I need to serve God I need to be who I really am I want to reset I want to come home and you're like the prodigal you're coming to your senses and you're saying I want to come home today if you're either one you've never received Christ but you're saying today Jesus save me forgive me of my sins I don't want to go to hell I don't want to bear the wrath of God I want to be a follower of Jesus a child of God I want heaven to be my home I'm surrendering to you or be you're here and you say I'm like the prodigal I need to come home I've been swept into the current of Babylon but I'm repenting and I'm asking Jesus save me today if you're either one of those on the count of three I want you to reach out to God when you hear me say three in a moment I want you to shoot your hand up in the air as your confession of faith and we're gonna pray together here we go get ready one, two, three shoot it up in the air right now and hold it up hold it up yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes yes, yes, yes, yes praise God look at what God is doing yes, yes all over the room all the way in the back come on some of you right now you're on the fence don't let the spirit of Babylon steal you and dominate you you need to break through if you've not raised your hand you raise it right now today is your day thank you, young man right now in the name of Jesus freedom, salvation yes, I see your hand young man thank you you can put your hands down right now all over the room Bible says this if we believe in our heart on the Lord Jesus Christ and we confess with our mouth that God has raised him from the dead we shall be saved I'm going to lead us all into prayer and I want you to everybody in this room to follow along say this out loud and if you raise your hand I want you to pray this prayer and I want you to say it directly to God here we go say heavenly Father I come in the name of Jesus and I repent of my sin I know that I'm a sinner I deserve your judgment but I'm asking for mercy I believe in Jesus that he is the Son of God and I surrender to you Jesus come into my heart save me forgive me sit on the throne and be my King and Lord I turn my back on Babylon I turn my back on the spirit of this age and I say I belong to you I am a new creation made in the image of Jesus I have the Holy Spirit living inside of me and I have a destiny that I shall fulfill thank you for loving me saving me and forgiving me in Jesus' name Amen Come on somebody praise the Lord