The story of the Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the book of Daniel is a wonderful example of what trust in God really is! (Read Daniel Chapter 3)
What is Trust? Trust is confidence, a reliance or resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, or friendship of another. (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary)
What is the basis of our trust in God? How do we know we can trust him?
- - We have to possess more than just a knowledge of God
- - Trusting God is not merely believing that He exists – even the devils believe and tremble (James 2:19)
- - We must have something more to cling to than just a concept or idea of who God is
- - Romans 10:17 – So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God
- - Trust and faith are synonymous – they both imply full and absolute confidence
Our Christian journey is full of opportunities to trust God. Sooner or later every one of us will have to make a choice to bow or to take a stand in the face of human authority motivated by evil.
The king had promoted these men to places of honor and influence; while many Jewish captives were suffering poverty and famine and hardship, the king had nurtured these men for years. He fed them, he provided for them, he educated them, he gave them all they needed to thrive in captivity.
The least they could do in return was to compromise just a little. The least they could do was to bow at his command. They refused to bow!
Their loyalty was to God alone – promotion doesn’t come from man – it comes from God.
The king used his power and authority to try to intimidate these men to worship him. They knew that all power belongs to God. Although they were faithful servants to the king as long as his laws didn’t contradict the law of God; their ultimate loyalty was to God alone.
These men were good men; they were faithful, they were men of integrity; but goodness will not deliver you from the fiery furnace.
There is a law called the “law of sin and death.” The king had made a law that all must bow before his golden image. To break this law meant death. God has a law called the Ten Commandments; to break this law is to bring a sentence of death upon your life.
Nebuchadnezzar represents the power of the law of sin and death.
How is Nebuchadnezzar similar to the power of the law of sin and death in our lives?
1. We were once servants of sin
- - Rom 6:16-18 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
- - These men served Nebuchadnezzar faithfully for years
2. Sin did not become sinful until there was law
- - Rom 7:12-13 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
- - When the king made the law to worship his image, these men became aware that to do this would be sin against God. To worship the king’s image would be exceedingly sinful
3. Sin is easy to get along with until you decide not to obey it
- - Eph 2:2-3 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
- - Nebuchadnezzar was easy going as long as you agreed with him. As long as you served him and didn’t offend him, he was a nice guy. But if you stood up to him and refused to bow at his command, he would become enraged and sentence you to immediate death.
- - We never really know how much power and influence sin has over us until we refuse to yield to it.
4. We have been delivered from the law of sin and death
- - Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
- - Just as God delivered these men; we have been delivered from the law of sin and death
- - If God delivered us from the penalty of breaking His own divine and holy law; how much more we he deliver us from the penalty of breaking the law of man when we have done for the glory of his name?
- - Nebuchadnezzar was just a man.
- - Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
When we make the declaration – “I am trusting God” – what is it that we are trusting him for? What is the basis for our trust?
- - These men trusted that God was able to deliver them from the fiery furnace and from the hand of the king
- - Their basis for trusting God was not their good works but their knowledge of Him as a deliverer for all those you trust him
- - Nahum 1:7 – The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him
1. Trust is resolute – not double-minded
- - Jos 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
- - 1Ki 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
- - Jas 1:5-8 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
2. Trust doesn’t ask “What if?”
- - Doesn’t require all the details
- - Hebrews 10:9
3. Trust doesn’t look for a way out
- - Trust doesn’t look for another way and then say “God will understand – he knows my heart.”
- - Act 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
4. Trust doesn’t bow to intimidation
- - Psa 56:2-4 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High. What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
5. Trust has no Plan B
- - Heb 10:35-39 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul
- - Sometimes we go so far and then resort to another place for help
- - We let people talk us into another plan (Curse God and die)
- - We yield to the pressure and disobey God
6. Trust goes all the way to the end
- - Heb 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
- - Psa 48:14 For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death
- - Rev 12:9-12 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
7. Trust sees God’s salvation/deliverance
- - Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
- - They didn’t see the furnace as the end; they saw deliverance as the end
- - The furnace was the place where they would see God’s glory and experience deliverance
What is your furnace today? Where is God demanding that you trust him?
In what areas have you been living in avoidance and fear? In what areas have you been living in compromise? In what areas are you hesitating and thereby disobeying God?
- - Finances
- - Sickness
- - Relationship troubles
- - Addiction
Trusting God will unleash all the powers of hell in your life – it will get worse before it gets better – That furnace that has always been there threatening you will be turned up seven times hotter when you choose to trust God – But He will deliver you!
What happened when they trusted God?
1. He sent his angel and delivered them
- - In every area I have ever trusted God I have experienced his grace to go through to the end
2. He changed the king’s word
- - Rom 8:31-39 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
3. They were promoted
- - Psa 75:6-7 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.
TRUST!!!!
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