Welcome back to our summer Bible study on The Book of Daniel, called Thrive. In this study, we are learning that regardless of what life throws at us and how difficult our circumstances may be, we can thrive, not just survive, in this challenging world. This is a massive truth, and the deeper we dive into this study, the clearer it becomes just how relevant and helpful this book is for our lives today. 

Over the last two weeks, Ken has taken us through Chapter 2, where we saw Daniel faced with an impossible task. Do you remember that?  Daniel and his friends have completed the indoctrination program and are now working as advisors to the King.  One night, the King has a dream that troubles him deeply, and he wants it interpreted, which is impossible.  When his advisors (made up of sorcerers, astrologers, and magicians) can’t interpret it, he is furious, and we will keep seeing Nebuchadnezzar has quite a temper and orders all his advisors to be executed, which would include Daniel and his buddies who weren’t even there.  This was the second big test of Daniel’s life, and it was awesome to see how he responded to a crisis moment where he was going to be killed if he couldn’t interpret the dream.  If you missed either of Ken’s talks on Chapter 2, I would encourage you to go back and watch them, as Ken showed us what to do in a crisis and how to tap into the supernatural power of God. 

Today marks the beginning of four weeks spent in Chapter 3.  It’s the first of the big, popular stories from Daniel that we've heard since we were children.  You could say we will spend the next four weeks in the Fiery Furnace.  This chapter is loaded with lessons for us to grab hold of and apply to our lives.  So, we want to take our time, and we will break it down into four parts.  Here’s the layout.

Part 1 – We look at the similarities to our world today. 

Part 2 – What do we do when we find ourselves under pressure? 

Part 3 – Trusting God in the fire. 

Part 4 – Life after the fire or pressure passes.  

So, let’s roll up our sleeves and dive into this incredible chapter of Scripture. I will start with two small details. First, we make a 15-year time jump. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have completed the indoctrination program and are now the most trusted advisors to the King.  Second, Daniel isn’t in this story; we aren’t sure exactly where he is during this incredible moment, but he isn’t present.  This story is all about King Nebuchadnezzar, Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego. 

Daniel 3:1 King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet tall and nine feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 2 Then he sent messages to the high officers, officials, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the provincial officials to come to the dedication of the statue he had set up. 3 So all these officials came and stood before the statue King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 4 Then a herald shouted out, "People of all races and nations and languages, listen to the king's command! 5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and other musical instruments, bow to the ground to worship King Nebuchadnezzar's gold statue. 6 Anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace." NLT

I told you Nebuchadnezzar was a real hothead. He is also the most powerful man in the world and is sliding into the oldest temptation in the book, dating back to the Garden of Eden: he wants to be God.  He wants everyone to worship him, and rationally, if you don’t, you will be thrown into the fiery furnace.

Daniel 3:7 So at the sound of the musical instruments, all the people, whatever their race or nation or language, bowed to the ground and worshiped the gold statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. NLT

So we see that all the people bow down and worship because no one wants to be burned alive…all but three, Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego. Today, we are looking at the similarities between their culture and ours.  At first glance, you may not think that we have much in common; we aren’t under a vicious King in Babylon, and we won’t be killed for not bowing to a big statue, but we have more in common than you think.  

Our focus today will be on the most significant thing Babylon tried to impose on the Israelites. As we discuss today, I think you will see that it remains the primary challenge people face when trying to live for God.  Today, we will focus on idol worship.   Our world creates larger-than-life images for us to worship.  Now, it isn’t as obvious today as this was for them; we don’t have giant statues that we are forced to bow down to. It’s much more subtle than that, making it more difficult to deal with.  No, our world isn’t building a giant statue for us to worship, but idol worship is so prevalent today.  We could talk about the people our world builds up for us, movie stars, sports stars, music icons.  We could talk of the things we worship today, like physical beauty, money, sex, material possessions, success, power, popularity, careers, parenting, and down the list I could go. We need to see that our world props things up for us to worship, just like Babylon did for them. So, this is pretty wild, The King has made an idol of himself, and while we don’t build the big statue physically, we live in a world today that pushes this narrative: The world revolves around me! Hopefully, as we grow and mature, we will understand that this isn’t true, but this is a major challenge today.  Let’s keep reading and we will briefly look at a few other things that we have in common with the children of Israel’s issues…

Daniel 3:8 But some of the astrologers went to the king and informed on the Jews. 9 They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, "Long live the king! 10 You issued a decree requiring all the people to bow down and worship the gold statue when they hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and other musical instruments. 11 That decree also states that those who refuse to obey must be thrown into a blazing furnace. 12 But there are some Jews—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—whom you have put in charge of the province of Babylon. They pay no attention to you, Your Majesty. They refuse to serve your gods and do not worship the gold statue you have set up."13 Then Nebuchadnezzar flew into a rage and ordered that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought before him. NLT

Sounds like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego don’t have too many fans, with their coworkers, do they?  You know, there is a price to be paid for standing up and doing the right thing.  It’s often a lonely road to be true to God rather than doing what everyone else is doing.  On top of that, people won’t celebrate you for it; in fact, people of this world will hate you for it.  These men weren’t impressed by the character of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; they were resentful, disliking them for what they stood for, and now they saw their chance to get rid of them.  Stand up for what is right, reject the world's idols, and people of this world just won’t be happy with you. Doing the right thing, standing with integrity and character, will make some people angry. Standing up for Christ in our world today will upset some people, just like it did in Babylon. Trust me, as someone who has had many awkward conversations about what you do for a living, not everyone is happy that you are willing to stand up for God in this world today.

But let’s get into this today.  Everyone is kneeling, so why wouldn’t they?  We read earlier that when the music played, ALL the people did as they were told, all but these three.  Why?  Well, I will give you two reasons, besides the fact that they were godly men of character.  And I will start with this fact.  This was rule number one, the biggest no-no of them all for the Children of Israel!

Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them… NIV

This is rule number one with their Heavenly Father: no other gods before me, and you shall not make idols of any kind and bow down to them. And today, we are going to dive into how this big no-no is still the biggest challenge of our lives today. And here’s the second reason they won’t bow!  This is the reason they are in Babylon in the first place!  God is teaching them a painful lesson because they have broken this command!  So, I’m thinking, at this point, 18 or so years into the pain, they are seeing how important it is not to have other gods or bow down and worship idols of any kind!  So, let's finish the section of Scripture we are looking at today.  They have been exposed by the other advisors and are brought before the King, who gives them one more chance to do what he wants them to do.

Daniel 3:13 Then Nebuchadnezzar flew into a rage and ordered that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought before him. When they were brought in, 14 Nebuchadnezzar said to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you refuse to serve my gods or to worship the gold statue I have set up? 15 I will give you one more chance to bow down and worship the statue I have made when you hear the sound of the musical instruments. But if you refuse, you will be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. And then what god will be able to rescue you from my power?" NLT

What King Nebuchadnezzar is doing here is asking who is God…is it me or God?  We will pick up the story next week, but for today, let’s talk…because we are watching Babylon push idolatry on God’s Children, and I want you to see how this happens to us today. our world is pushing idol worship hard on us. We can see the results of the pressures we face in this area; we are watching the slow erosion of God all around us, from years of pressure that we can trace back to this exact tactic in our lives.  So let’s look at idol worship, because many of us think this isn’t an issue in our lives. We’re not bowing to giant statues and would never do such a thing. 

What is idolatry?

It is anything we desire more than God or that takes the place of God.  I don’t speak Greek, but I love the word they use for idolatry because it means “over-desire.” 

That hits different.  This would mean an idol in my life may not be a giant statue or a golden calf, but anything that I over-desire in my life.  Anything that matters more to me than God is an idol.  This is a huge problem in our world today, but we can argue that caring too much about things isn’t inherently wrong, especially when it involves good things…which is so often the case.  

I think when we think idol worship, we think about statues, or money, or superstar people…material things, yet so often the things that slide ahead of God in our lives or crowd God out of our lives…are the good things we need to be doing in life.  When we understand that an idol is something taking the place of God in our lives, something we over-desire, it means things like church, family, parenting, our future, our physical health, you name it, can become an idol if we aren’t careful.  What idolatry does in our lives is make something more important than God. 

“God was saying that the human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfilment, if we attain them.” - Timothy Keller

It’s interesting because we look at what Daniel and his friends are going through in Babylon and think how brutal it is, and it was. BUT, we are also under a massive assault in this area of idol worship; it’s pushed on us so hard, and the scariest part for us is that it is much harder to see.  It isn’t big statues, and loud music, and pagan gods, today it is an assault on our hearts, doing everything possible to get us to over-desire things of this world, people of this world, life in this world, good things in this world more than God…and the enemy has perfected his tactics to the point where we don’t even feel the assault as he uses good things, even things like church, work, life, parenting, you name it to get us to violate our relationship with God.  They were physically looking at their assault, it’s more dangerous today because it is so sneaky, and adding to that, we won’t get thrown into a fiery furnace if we over-desire things in our lives, often it’s not pain but comfort and pleasure coming from this over-desire of the heart, not pain, which just entrenches us deeper into idolatry.  

We must see this and understand what idol worship is really doing.  It’s an assault on your heart, fracturing your relationship with God in ways we can’t see, but can justify in our lives.  

So why would the focus of this idolatry assault be the heart?  The heart is your life; it’s central to how you live. Your heart is everything.  We know this…right?

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. NIV

We are to guard our hearts, above all else, it’s most important…why? Because it’s the source of your life, it’s behind all you do, all you say, what matters to you, everything stems from your heart, which makes it central to God, and would also mean it’s the very thing your enemy is coming after, and what’s the number one tactic to take out your heart?  Idol Worship, and it is so much easier than we think, it’s as simple as getting us to care about things that are often very good things, that do matter, more than we care about God, and we live in a world today, that has taken God from the number one priority in our lives down to a place where we still love God, but only give him what we can when we can. Why?  Life is hard and busy, and we have so much happening that we don’t have the time, energy, or resources for God that people seemed to have back in the day.  

What is interesting is that we always have the time, resources, and energy for things that we care about most.  Do you see it?  I may not bow down to a statue in my backyard, but there are a million things in my life, many that matter more than God…and what is idolatry again?  Anything we desire more than God or that takes the place of God in our lives.  

1 John 5:21 “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” NLT 

So, before we move on, let's look at this.  We often talk about Christianity as an active faith; it’s something we do, it’s how we live.  Our faith is seen, felt, and heard in our lives, and for so many of us, we struggle to live differently; we aren’t experiencing new life, and often wonder why.  But the issue is our heart condition.  Our hearts are where our thoughts, choices, words, priorities, motives, and everything come from.  What matters in your heart is directing your life, and frankly, no matter what you project, it is seen, felt, and heard.  So many of us are frustrated with our faith. We have been told to behave, follow rules, to “do the do’s and don’t do the don’t do’s,” and none of it seems to lead us to the life that Christianity advertises — and I will tell you why.  We believe it's about behavior modification and set out to change behaviors, but it’s actually about heart transformation.  It’s about what we care about most in our hearts.  When the heart is in the right place, the behavior automatically follows. Whenever you see a behavior change (good or bad), you know something has changed in a person’s heart.  

The problem is we live in a world that gives us a lot of things to fill our hearts with, to over-desire, leaving no room for God, and in North American Christianity today we don’t see many open to heart change which would lead to life change, we want Heaven and the benefits of God, but don’t touch my heart…don’t mess with my life, do you see it?  Modern-day idol worship is tough because it’s assaulting the heart, which is a lot harder to see than a giant statue with music playing loudly, but more deadly than a fiery furnace in so many ways.

You might be thinking, Sam, this is a little extreme today.  Are you seriously equating them bowing to the statue to people today being too busy, or tired, or stressed out for God…your calling them both idolatry?  Yes, I am.  You know, maybe it’s just decades of doing this, but it’s so easy to see something that used to confuse me.  We always have time, money, energy, and passion for the things we want to do, but we often burn out and find that the things we don’t want to do are hard, stressful, and exhausting.  

It’s all about the heart.  

What you care about most, God wants it to be Him, your enemy wants it to be anything else, good, bad, statues, money, your kids, youth sports, your pleasures and fun, your job, your finances, your health and rest…name it, this is what it is all about.   I get to be around many church activities, trainings, and meetings, and it’s fascinating to sit and listen to church leaders as they try to figure out how to reach people, keep them engaged, and share Jesus with the world.  That is all so good, and so important, but the problem is a church can do everything possible to remove barriers and boundaries that would keep people from Jesus, but in the end, each person has choice to make, on whether they will follow Jesus or not, and the church, and it’s leaders can’t make that choice for them.  

I was recently reading a book called “The Centered-Set Church” by Mark Baker.  It’s a good read that affirms the heart of MRC, where everything we do, every decision we make, and every activity we have is pointing you to Jesus and then giving us all the time, space, and grace to move on our journey towards Jesus at our own pace.  But there was this one line that stood out to me, because it’s the thing that churches don’t discuss, that many churches and leadership books don’t point to or discuss, but in the end, it’s where everything will come together for someone…or not. 

"When we turn towards Jesus, we also turn away from some things." Mark D Baker  

This is a thing, actually, this is THE THING.  We want God in our lives.  We love Him.  We are so thankful for Jesus and the incredible work of God’s saving grace in our lives, but the challenge falls right here.  When I turn toward Jesus, it means that I am turning away from some other things in my life, and the question becomes, will you?  We don’t like to say this in church, but the most popular answer to that question is NO.  Now, we are nicer than that about it, and we have many good reasons why we can’t redirect our lives, but regardless of all that, whether it is life, busyness, stress, money, kids, energy levels, you name it…the answer is no.  As churches, we will keep trying, and we will love people regardless of where they are on their journeys and leading them to Jesus, but in the end, the hardest part is watching people come so close to all they want, but in the end, not want God messing with their hearts and lives.  It happens over and over again.

God reveals to us through Scripture what He wants from us…it’s not a secret.  Do you know what it is?  It’s ALL of us.  

We saw it in week one, during our introduction to Daniel, when we read about God speaking through Jeremiah in his letter to the prisoners of war in Babylon. 

Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. NIV

This isn’t unclear; we will seek and find God when we seek Him with ALL our heart, not some or most.  What did Jesus say was the most important command from God? 

Matthew 22:36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  NIV

Again, Jesus doesn’t say love the Lord your God with some, or most of your heart, but ALL.  God wants ALL our hearts. This is how we experience God, find our best lives, and seek and find Him.  We give Him ALL of us, but that would also make the enemy’s job pretty simple.  In our Babylon today, the enemy doesn’t need to make gigantic statues and big, obvious displays and attacks on your life.  The most lethal thing he can do is to get us to replace ALL with SOME or MOST in our lives, and the simplest way to do that is to push things on us that we want, would like, and even need in life, that end up replacing God.

“Christ says, "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and your money and your work: I want you...Hand over the whole natural self. I will give you a new self instead." - C. S. Lewis

You know, as we close today I was going to lay out a bunch of stats to show you the way God has been pushed out of our culture then turn it and show you a series of things to do that can help us see the idols in our lives and make steps to remove them from our lives.  While it’s good information, there is a problem with that.  The problem is that it can slide us into behavior modification rather than heart transformation.  So, I will make it really simple for you today.  You want to defeat these idols of the heart that you face in our Babylon today?  Do you want to stand tall with the same courage that Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego did?  

Fall in love with God!  

God is after your love. He wants ALL of your heart, and when He has ALL of your heart, you live differently…because your heart leads your behaviors.  When you love something, you go all in on it, don’t you?  

I'll tell you a quick story about when my family realized I was in love with Mashawn.  She was working in the Washington, DC area, and I was spending more and more time with her there.  One fall Saturday afternoon, we were prepping our home for what used to be a major family tradition…Penn State football.  We never missed a game, and this was a big game that we had been looking forward to and talking about all week.  A few minutes into the first quarter, Mashawn called and was having a bad day, and wanted to spend time with me.  I put on my shoes, got up, grabbed my keys, and told them I was heading to DC to be with Mashawn.  My parents and brothers were stunned.  Where are you going?  Sam, the game just started, and it was the first time in my life that the game didn’t matter to me. Why?  I was in love, and it changed my behavior and reset what mattered to me.  Honestly, it seemed just as crazy to me to stay as it did for them, that I was leaving and not watching the game!  

What changes our behaviors, priorities, and what matters to us is love.  When we are ALL in, not kind of in, not mostly in, it’s a heart that is ALL in…and a heart that is ALL in wants to do what pleases their love!  But don’t take my word for it.  Jesus says this…

Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other…NLT

Think about it, what is God after?  He is after YOU!  He wants ALL of your love, ALL of your heart, ALL…not some, or most.  What does the enemy want to do? Take what could be ALL and make it some or most.  When you are in love, what are you willing to do? How far are you willing to go?  You are up for anything, you would do anything and everything, and it isn’t hard, it’s not in the way of other things, because when you love something…you are ALL in!  The way to defeat idolatry in your life and stand as tall as Daniel and his friends did in Babylon is simple.  

Fall in love with God!  

Spend time with Him. Pour into God’s Word, invest in prayer and worship, as He becomes first in your life; everything else will fall into place.  

Everything you are looking for from your faith, this abundant life, this best life we keep hearing about, is possible, but it won’t happen until “some, or most” becomes ALL in your life. Would you say you give God ALL of you, or is it some, or most, maybe none?  What has changed in your life because God is in it with you?  Is spending time with Him hard and in the way of other things in your life?  Is serving and engaging him hard?  

Your heart is revealing who you are, what matters to you, and what you love.  No, you aren’t bowing to giant statues, but please guard your heart from idolatry, and make sure the enemy hasn’t taken ALL, and made it some or most when it comes to God in your life.