by Pastor Samuel Obafaiye
Text: Daniel 3:1-30
I bring a message of hope, faith and encouragement to someone. That God is able to deliver from whatever ‘fire’ and ‘furnace’ of life.
It was hard enough that the three Hebrew men were captives in a foreign land, but their names were also changed to forget their faith in God of Israel. Hananiah – Jah who is gracious to Shedrach – command of the moon god. Mishael – who is like God to Meshack – who is what moon god is. Azariah – Jah has helped to Abednego – servant of Nebo/Nabu (Babylonian god of wisdom).
Could be that there is someone here; you are living as a captive in this land. Not that you are a slave bought with money or captured at war, but your movement is somehow now restricted, may God bring you out of that captivity in Jesus name. May be you are facing a name change that is making a mockery of your faith in God, may God work out His glory in you in Jesus name.
I applied for leave to remain in UK in 2000. My family came in by 2001 and added them to my application. For the next four years, we lived like captives in UK. We were first taken into a detention camp for a week, and then they changed our names to illegal immigrants. Today, God has promoted us that we can sign documents recommending people to the Home Office who should become British Citizens!
In recent times, God has begun to teach me more that as true Christians, we must go through ‘fires’ to fast track our elevation in life. God wanted to promote the three Hebrew men extraordinarily, the best way to do it is to put them through fire.
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 – For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Everyone bowed to the huge idol. Including their families, friends and native Jews. What a betrayal of trust in the God of Israel! It would be a terrible feeling, and that the fiery furnace was still awaiting them!
Are you going through any fire presently?
Sometimes, prayer yet to be answered could be a fiery furnace. You have prayed, fasted, confessed, possessed by faith, yet there is no manifestation. Situation begins to mock you as the huge idol looking at them. God is able to deliver you.
Loss of any kind could be a fiery furnace. Loss of time, possession, one’s health or the life of a loved one could be very hot. God is able to deliver too.
Betrayals could be fire that can be extremely hot. You have laboured and shown love over people who thought the best way to pay you back is to stab you in the back, destroy what you stand for and fabricate all sorts of lie against you, it can be very hot. God again is able to deliver.
If you are facing the threat of these or any other fires of life, what will you do?
Will you bow to the idol and hope to still live, or confess Christ and damn the threat? Will you say, ‘I will only bow with my knees and not with my heart’? Or may be bow only this once and never again? Will you say everyone is doing it, so I’m not an exception? Or that we are in a strange land, God will understand. Only be strong in The Lord, He will make a way for you.
– The king used his most mighty men to bind the Jews and threw them in the furnace. When the devil does that to you, know that you are a great threat to his kingdom.
– It may seem that you have been tied up, but never mind, the ropes will soon be burnt.
– For us as Christians, sometimes we face furnaces that are seven times hotter than the world faces. Again, the hotter the furnace, the greater the glory of God and the higher the promotion.
– One of the reasons we need to thank God for when we go through fire is that some never made it to the point we are. For you to get to that far means you are liable to pass through. Otherwise the blowing flames would have consumed you.
– It was the fire that was supposed to kill them that set them free. What the enemy has meant for evil for you will now be for your good in Jesus name.
They were strolling in the fire with Jesus! What a shock to the king! The Hebrew men had to be called out by the same king. They were not in a hurry. They were checked by the king and the people, what a testimony! What a great and sweet victory!
Daniel 3:24-30
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counsellors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counsellors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
The promise of God for us regarding fire of life.
Isaiah 43:2
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not kindle upon you.
What to do for God to deliver you from any fire
Obedience to His word – thou shalt not bow down to any idol
Let your faith in God be higher than your hope in a Him. Hope can be challenged at times, but our faith in Him must not be shaken.
Altar call
God will only deliver those He knows
Isaiah 43:1
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
Prayers
Almighty Father, Demonstrate your glory and power in any fire or furnace I walk through in life.
Almighty Father, do not let my faith be shaken as I go through any furnace of life.
Sermon delivered on October 6th, 2013