Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego | AKA (Part 2)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Travis Rutland Podcast. Travis Rutland is a spirit filled pastor and ministry leader who has been featured on International Christian Television. He serves as lead pastor of Liberty Square Church in Cartersville, Georgia and as president of Global Servants. His sermons focus on clear biblical teaching, practical truth and encouragement for everyday life. Each message is designed to strengthen your faith and draw you deeper into God's word. This podcast is brought to you you by Global Servants. For more information about Global servants, please visit globalservants.org now here's Travis Rutland. [00:00:42] Speaker B: Well, good morning again. It is great to see each and every one of you. As Chris mentioned, the weather has turned on us and this weather is an answer to prayer. Because I last week got this brand new sweater vest with our brand new logo on it and I was like, [00:00:58] Speaker C: God, 80 degrees outside. I don't want to wait until the fall to wear my brand new sweater vest. [00:01:05] Speaker B: And wouldn't you know it, I woke up this morning, it was about 47. I said, thank you Jesus. [00:01:10] Speaker C: That's a prayer. God still answers prayer. This sweater vest proves it. Don't let anybody tell you different. [00:01:17] Speaker B: So now this morning we are continuing this series on name changes in the Bible. We talked last week about Abraham and Sarah and God changed their name. But most of these name changes that we're going to deal with in this series series are not name changes that God institutes. It is actually name changes that someone else gives a person or that the person gives themselves. And this morning is one of those. So turn, if you will, in the Old Testament to the book of Daniel. Now originally I made a slight change on this. Originally the title of this sermon was Belteshazzar, which is Daniel's Babylonian name. So we're going to talk about Daniel. But in preparation for this sermon, I felt like God was pointing me towards Daniel's friends who you are also familiar with and their story. And I felt like we're not, we're going to be in the book of Daniel still, but we're not dealing with Daniel or Belteshazzar. We're going to deal with his friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. I, I really feel strongly that this message is for someone and my hope is for a lot of us. But I really feel like God showed me this passage for this week. So turn, if you will to Daniel chapter one and verse six. We're going to see the name change first. Now remember Jerusalem, the kingdom of Judah has fallen. Jerusalem has been destroy, destroyed and then been taken away in captivity to Babylon by the Babylonians, the Babylonian empire. And they've been taken away to the capital, which is Babylon. And a number of them are taken to Babylon, and then they've had their name changed. So turn, if you will, to Daniel, chapter one and verse six. Now, from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names, and he gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar. To Hananiah, Shadrach, to Mishael, Mishak, and to Azariah, Abednego. So now we have Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Turn over, if you will, to Daniel, chapter 3 and verse 1 Daniel 3:1. Nebuchadnezzar, the king made an image of gold, whose height was 60 cubits and its width and 6 cubits, and he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Verse 4, same chapter. Then a herald cried aloud to you, it is commanded, O peoples, nations and languages, that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery in symphony, with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image which Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Verse 12, the same chapter. These are other Babylonians speaking to King Nebuchadnezzar. And they say, there are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not paid due regard to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the gold image which you set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar, in rage and fury, gave the command to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? Now, if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, liar and sultry in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made good? But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you from my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, o Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter if that 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, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O King, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. Let's pray. God, I ask in the next few moments that you will speak to us, that you will just move in this place, every person, every spirit attuned to what you are saying. If you cannot speak through me, speak in spite of me. But we long to hear from you. This morning, in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Fire is a wonderful thing. It is a blessing since ancient humanity discovered it. It allows us to cook food, and it gives us protection and safety. It allows us to warm our homes, all of those things. Fire is a wonderful, wonderful, amazing thing. Fire can also be dangerous and scary. If you're caught in the midst of a wildfire in the forest, you're not thinking, what a blessing fire is. In the same way, if a fire breaks out in your home, it doesn't feel wonderful and a blessing in that moment. But all of life is sort of like that. I mean, we want to have friends. We want to have people that we can talk to, that we can share with, that support us, that. That help us, that, you know, that. That are with us on our journey. Everybody wants friends, everybody wants people in their life. But those same people can hurt and betray us, Right? [00:06:44] Speaker C: The same thing with kids. You want kids, and they're a blessing, [00:06:47] Speaker B: and they're great, and they're marvelous and wonderful, and they're also a challenge, to put it mildly sometimes, right? [00:06:56] Speaker C: So I think to not. [00:06:59] Speaker B: I don't want to oversimplify the human condition and life in general, but probably there is that moment where our existence can be boiled down to a list of pros. Everything is like that. There's a list of pros and cons. [00:07:20] Speaker C: There's good, it's great, it's wonderful. But it also can be tough and [00:07:26] Speaker B: difficult and hard and not fun. Now, here's the thing, and this is what is important to remember, and this [00:07:35] Speaker C: is what I want to make clear [00:07:36] Speaker B: before we dig into this. Because I don't want people to hear the wrong thing and think that I'm okay with a certain thing. All right? So I want you to hear the whole thing. There's a lot of bad stuff that is actually not your fault. There's bad things that happen that are. That are not your fault. Wildfires start not through a lit match and an intentional arsonist. Some wildfires start through a lightning strike. That doesn't mean that the forest gets any less burned. It just means that the lightning struck. It wasn't someone intentionally doing the same way. [00:08:17] Speaker C: Is true with friends. [00:08:19] Speaker B: As we mentioned before, we have friends. [00:08:21] Speaker C: Great. Wonderful. And then one day, someone decides they just don't like you, or they decide they're mad at you, or they decide they don't want to be your friend anymore. [00:08:29] Speaker B: And you didn't do anything. [00:08:30] Speaker C: You didn't cause that to happen. But it still doesn't make it any less painful. The same way with kids, you do the best that you can. You try and raise them. You try and teach them right from wrong. You try to show them the path forward. You try to, you know, show them how wonderful God is in a relationship with God, and you try to impress all these things upon them. But ultimately, kids make their own decisions. And so often that feels like a direct judgment on our parenting. But. But it's not. Everybody is entitled to make their own dumb decisions. Okay, So I want. I want to hear this. When we talk about this morning, when we talk about this idea of this fiery furnace, I want to make it clear that there are seasons of life where you are in the fire, and nothing you have done has caused that to happen. [00:09:24] Speaker B: But. [00:09:25] Speaker C: But listen to me. [00:09:26] Speaker B: There. There are things that we do. There are decisions that we make, and [00:09:32] Speaker C: there are consequences to those actions. So I want to be clear as we talk about being in the fire [00:09:38] Speaker B: this morning in just a minute, as we kind of go through this story of the fiery furnace and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. As we talk about this, I want to be clear when I talk this morning about being in the fire, I [00:09:49] Speaker C: am not talking about things that are happening in your life due to your own poor decision making. Right? So we have this. This addiction, this problem, this addiction that [00:10:00] Speaker B: is in our life, and then we [00:10:02] Speaker C: equate it to the fiery furnace experience [00:10:05] Speaker B: of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. [00:10:07] Speaker C: No, sir. You have built that fiery furnace, and [00:10:10] Speaker B: you have locked yourself inside. [00:10:12] Speaker C: There is a difference. [00:10:13] Speaker B: That is not what I'm talking about. [00:10:15] Speaker C: I'm not talking about making decisions that cause consequences that are bad and then trying to pretend like we didn't have [00:10:23] Speaker B: our hand on the wheel. [00:10:25] Speaker C: Okay, that's not what I'm talking about. What I am saying is that therefore, every single one of us in here, there are seasons in every person's life where somebody else ties your hands and throws you into a fiery furnace. Now, what do we learn in that season? What is God saying to us in that moment? How is God speaking? How is he directing? How is he showing? What is he showing us? Because every single person in here is going to at one time or another. And I got bad news for some of us. It may be more than once. You're going to find yourself in a fiery furnace that is not of your own making. So when that happens, what do we say? What do we look for? What can we learn in that? [00:11:13] Speaker B: So go back, if you will, to the story of these three men, Daniel 3 and 19, right where we left off. [00:11:21] Speaker C: Nebuchadnezzar builds this golden image. [00:11:25] Speaker B: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And Daniel, who is referred to, interestingly enough, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego throughout Daniel are referred to by their Babylonian names. Daniel never is. He's always called Daniel. He's never called Belteshazzar. I don't know what that implies necessarily. It's just a fascinating thing about the book. [00:11:44] Speaker C: So Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel are all in positions of leadership throughout the Babylonian empire. [00:11:51] Speaker B: And there are others that are jealous of them. [00:11:54] Speaker C: There are others that want their job. And so when Nebuchadnezzar makes the golden image, they accuse Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego of not worshiping the golden image as Nebuchadnezzar commanded. So he brings them before him, and [00:12:06] Speaker B: he says, did you do this? [00:12:08] Speaker C: I want you to worship this golden image. [00:12:10] Speaker B: If you don't, I'm going to throw you into the burning fiery furnace. And Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said, you don't have to ask anything else. We're not worshiping that thing. [00:12:19] Speaker C: He said, God will provide. And if God doesn't provide, it doesn't [00:12:22] Speaker B: matter, because there is no way that we're ever going to worship anything other than God. All right, we read that. Now that's where we are. Look at 3 and 19. [00:12:32] Speaker C: Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and [00:12:34] Speaker B: the expression on his face changed towards Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace and seven times more than it was usually heated. And he commanded certain mighty men of valor who was who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in Their coats, their trousers, their turbans and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king's command was urgent and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, fell down, bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished, and he spoke in haste. And he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said to the king, true, O king, look. He answered, I see four men loose. Now, we'll come to the fourth man in just a moment, but I want you to look at that last word, that from the beginning of verse 25. I see four men loose. I see four men loose. [00:13:52] Speaker C: Here's the first thing about the fiery furnace. Here's the first thing about the season of fire. In our life in the fire, we discover freedom. In the fire, we discover new levels of freedom. Because in the midst of the fiery furnace, the stuff that bound us before we were thrown into the furnace, we no longer matters. The things that we thought were so horrible, the stuff that we've been struggling with, the ways that we've been held and bound. And then when you're thrown into a season of fire, then you understand what real tribulation is. That doesn't mean life gets better. You think to yourself, I promise you, when you're in the fiery furnace, you say, I'd rather be bound out there. No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't. Because the fiery furnace season will not last forever. And in the midst of the fire, the stuff. The stuff that was holding on to you is burned away. You're no longer bound. Fire isn't fun. The fiery furnace is scary. The burning fiery furnace heated seven times hotter than it's normally heated. So hot that the guards who push Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into the furnace are burned up themselves. Nobody wants that. When you're walking up the stairs with your hands burned in your clothes. They. They. They tied them down. They couldn't move hands. They walking like this to a burning fiery furnace. I promise you that. None of them were saying, boy, this is going to be great, isn't it? Gosh, I'm excited about this fiery furnace, Right? Nobody says that. Nobody looks forward to it. But in the furnace, sometimes in the fire is the only place that you're ever really going to be able to find liberty from the stuff from before, Right? Because you're focused on it. You're so consumed with it that you're never going to find the freedom that you desperately need until the season of Real Problem happens. And in that moment, you cry out to God and you find freedom that you could not find without the fiery furnace. But that's not a fun place to be. [00:16:10] Speaker B: When our older boys were little, Mark in particular, when Mark was a little guy, just a toddler, a little bit older, he was obsessed with the old Disney movie, Peter Pan. Not any. Any of the remakes, but the original Peter Pan movie. He loved it. He was obsessed with it. He wanted to watch it all the time. [00:16:31] Speaker C: Pirates and Indians and crocodiles. [00:16:33] Speaker B: And he just. He loved the story and the old Disney animation. Back when Disney used to make. [00:16:39] Speaker C: Used to actually know how to make movies and all that kind of stuff. He loved it. And so Courtney has younger brother and [00:16:47] Speaker B: sister, quite a bit younger than them. So they were still in elementary school [00:16:51] Speaker C: when our kids were babies. And so every time that Mark went [00:16:55] Speaker B: over to his grandmother's house, to Courtney's [00:16:57] Speaker C: mom's house, he wanted to watch Peter Pan. Well, after the 10th or 15th or 20th or 30th time, her brother and sister didn't want to watch it anymore. And so they just trying to figure out what to say, and they tried to suggest to other movies, do you want to watch this? You want. No, Mark only wanted to watch Peter Pan. And so finally he went over to their house one time and he said, [00:17:20] Speaker B: Courtney's sister's name, Daisy. [00:17:21] Speaker C: He said, daisy, I want to watch Peter Pan. And she said, mark, Peter Pan got burned up in the great fire. He was like 4 or 5 years old. It's like the Great Fire. She said, yes, the VH vhs, the tape is gone. It was burned up in the great fire. Do you want to watch something else? [00:17:43] Speaker B: He said, well, I guess we'll have to [00:17:46] Speaker C: listen. That's kind of how it works. The stuff that you're obsessed with, when you allow God to burn it up in the fire in the moment, it gives you new levels of freedom that you never thought possible, right? Because. So here's how it works again. You're in a. You're in a furnace situation, a season through no fault of your own. [00:18:12] Speaker B: I want to remind everybody again of my opening statement. [00:18:15] Speaker C: If you think that you can live [00:18:17] Speaker B: in varying levels of sin and addiction [00:18:19] Speaker C: and find freedom in that, you are [00:18:21] Speaker B: not understanding what I'm saying. [00:18:23] Speaker C: Okay, this is a season where someone else has accused you of something. They've built a fiery furnace. They have thrown you in, right? Okay, so now before you get to that, you have this thing. And it's not sin, exactly. It's not sin. It's just this deal, this thing that you're struggling with. You've had this thing and you can't seem to work through it. And you think about it all the time, and you're obsessed with it, and you've got this pain. And you. It. It. Let's just call it that. Whatever it is, it's pain of something that was said to you or done to you or some way that people disappointed you or failed you. And you've just got this pain in your life. And it seems to be all that you can think of and all that you talk about and all that you can focus on. And it's. That's all it is. And it keeps you bound up and it keeps you in chains, in bondage. You can't seem to move forward. You can't find the next thing that God's calling you to be about. You can't embrace your destiny, your purpose, your future, because this thing has just got you tied in knots. This pain, this thing that happened. But then that fiery furnace season happens, and you find yourself thrown into that fiery furnace through nothing. You did nothing you built. You didn't make the fiery furnace. You didn't set it on fire. You didn't create it. But in that moment, all the other stuff that seems so important is burned up. It is ashes in the furnace. You are loosed. It's not fun to be in the fire. But sometimes that's the only way that we can find the freedom that God so desperately wants for our life. That fire is not fun. But in the fire, we discover freedom. [00:20:07] Speaker B: I see men loose. Now look at the end of verse 25, I'll read the whole thing. But Nebuchadnezzar says, look, I see four men loose. They're loose. They're no longer bound. [00:20:21] Speaker C: They are walking in the midst of [00:20:23] Speaker B: the fire, and they are not hurt. [00:20:25] Speaker C: And the form of the fourth is like the son of God. All right, now there are three men thrown into the fire, bound. And now they see four men. And all of the men are loose. They are walking around. Do you notice that? It doesn't say. He doesn't say that. There are three men over there and one guy on the other place, isolated. He says, I see four men. What? Loose. All together. Walking around in relationship, talking to each other, amazed, right there in the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And yet there's four of them, and they're all together because what in the fire, we discover Jesus in the fire, we discover new levels of who Jesus is. There's stuff revealed. You say, are you telling me, preacher, that I don't know who Jesus is? No, I'm not. But I am telling you, as someone who has experienced fiery furnace seasons in my life, there's stuff you learn about Jesus in the furnace that you're never going to learn anywhere else. There's new ways. How he provides, how he protects, how he makes a way where there seems to be no way, how he does something in our life. And there are ways that you can never really understand and fully grasp who Jesus is operational in your life until you're going through the fire. And in the midst of that, he Sundays, I see four men loose, and one has the image of the Son of God and Jesus. It says, they're loose and they're walking around. Jesus says to them, guys, this is crazy, isn't it? Look at this fire. [00:22:08] Speaker B: I'm proud of you. [00:22:10] Speaker C: You believed, you held firm. You didn't do what everybody else was doing. [00:22:16] Speaker B: You didn't bow the knee to the [00:22:19] Speaker C: gods of this present age. He said, there's Nebuchadnezzar out there. He thought he was in charge. He's learning right now. He's not in charge at all. Wave at Nebuchadnezzar. [00:22:30] Speaker A: Right? [00:22:31] Speaker C: Let's wave at him. You see that? It doesn't say, I see three men on one side and one man on the other side. He says, I see four men all together in that moment. They are in an intimate, authentic relationship with the Son of God. He is. He is in the furnace with them. Do you see that? It doesn't say, I see three men and one guy who looks like the Son of God hovering over the situation. The Son of God is not standing next to Nebuchadnezzar on the outside. He Sundays, I see four men. One of them looks like the Son of God, but all four of them are in the furnace together, walking around, conversing. They learn. I would love to know what the Son of God told me. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I would love to know the truth, the insight that he is revealing to them. I would love to understand the conversation they had with the Son of God in that moment. But see, you only have those conversations when you encounter Jesus in the midst of the fire. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. You have a moment, and I want to make it clear. The fiery furnace is awful. It's suffering, it's tribulation, it's pain. I'm not. I'm not, you know, pretending like this experience is fun. It's not. Nobody wants to be thrown, bound into a fiery furnace. Nobody wants that. So I'm not saying that this is just going to be so enjoyable. You're going to say, oh, yeah, the fire. A fire is not too bad. Fire is not too bad. No, it's going to be painful, it's going to be awful. It's going to be tribulation, it's going to be suffering. But in the midst of it, we find freedom that previously held us. And we understand more fully and completely who Jesus is operational in our life. We learn he will never leave us or forsake us. He is in the furnace with us. He is in the midst of the fire with us. [00:24:42] Speaker B: We're still not done, though. Look, if you will, at Daniel 3 and 26, right after what we read. Picking right back up. Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spoke, saying, shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came from the midst of the fire, and the satraps, administrators, governors, and the king's counselors gathered together. And they saw these men on whose body the fire had no power. The hair of their head was not singed, nor was their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them. [00:25:21] Speaker C: Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, blessed be the God [00:25:23] Speaker B: of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They have frustrated the king's word and yielded their bodies that they should not serve nor worship any God except their own. Therefore, I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss, the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap, because there is no other God who can deliver like this. Verse 30. [00:25:52] Speaker C: Then. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and [00:25:58] Speaker B: Abednego in the province of Babylon. [00:26:01] Speaker C: Right? Now, if I'm Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, I'm saying, hey, God, how about you make that promotion happen before the fiery furnace? Right? I could. I could use a little raise at work before the fiery Furnace. But see, that's the final thing about the fire. After all that happened, then. Then Nebuchadnezzar gives them the promotion. Then Nebuchadnezzar gives them the raise. Then they are they all this good stuff happens. Why? [00:26:31] Speaker B: Because the final thing is this. [00:26:33] Speaker C: In the fire, we discover blessing. Now, there's some times where you got to go through the fire before you can take hold of the blessing that God has for you. And you say to yourself, but why? [00:26:46] Speaker B: I don't know all the reasons. One of them is, I believe that [00:26:50] Speaker C: we have to be refined. And who I was before the fiery furnace is not where I have to be in order to inherit the blessing that God has for me on the other side. See, I haven't been refined. What am I over here? Over here? What I'm bound. I've got stuff. I've got problems. I've got issues. I've got things that are holding me. And God has promotion and blessing and raises. And he has a future and a destiny and a calling for me here. You understand? But listen, the me over here, I'm [00:27:26] Speaker B: all bound up, right? [00:27:29] Speaker C: I've got stuff all over me. My hands are bound, my feet. I can't do this. And inherit my blessing. How do I become who God wants me to be in order to be all that he calls me to be? [00:27:40] Speaker B: How I become that person is in the fiery furnace. [00:27:45] Speaker C: But that's not fun, that's not enjoyable. Nobody's looking forward to that. Nobody's praying. Oh, God, please unleash a season of fiery furnace on me, okay? Nobody prays that prayer. I've been in ministry for 20 years. Nobody's ever come up to me and say, oh, Travis, I just want you to pray that somebody throws me in a fiery furnace. Nobody prays that prayer. But in order to become who God is calling you to be, you've got to get some stuff off of you. You've got to have some things refined. There's impurities in us, just like gold. And the gold's got to be heated up so the impurities are burned away. And all that's left is the gold. All that's left is the person God's calling you to be to inherit the blessing that he has all. He already has it for you. He's already there preparing and making a way where there seems to be no way. And what you've got to do is be willing to trust him in the fiery furnace in order to inherit the blessing he has for you. That's it. But God doesn't always make it clear what he's doing. He doesn't always make it obvious. And so what we have to do is in the moments of tribulation, in the suffering, in the pain, in the problems, in the fire, we have to trust that there will be a then moment. [00:29:03] Speaker B: Then that's what we hold onto. We allow God to burn off the stuff that shouldn't be holding us. We discover freedom. We discover new aspects and new relationship with Jesus. [00:29:16] Speaker C: And the final thing is we hold on to God so that the then [00:29:19] Speaker B: the blessings, we get there. [00:29:22] Speaker C: But it's not always obvious what God's doing. [00:29:26] Speaker B: There was an older guy in my last church, one of my favorite people, and he always had great stories. [00:29:32] Speaker C: He told me a story. [00:29:33] Speaker B: He was a college student in New Orleans in the early 1960s, and he decided to hitchhike. Back in the early 60s, when you [00:29:43] Speaker C: could do more of that, he decided to hitchhike from New Orleans to a [00:29:49] Speaker B: town in Mexico that was right across the border in Texas. [00:29:52] Speaker C: So he basically had to hitch all the way across Texas. [00:29:55] Speaker B: And for those of you hadn't been in Texas, Texas is a big old state. [00:29:58] Speaker C: So you're going to do a lot [00:29:59] Speaker B: of hitchhiking and a lot of rides before you get where you want to be. [00:30:03] Speaker C: He said he was getting closer to [00:30:05] Speaker B: the border, and he pulled into a small West Texas town about midnight. [00:30:10] Speaker C: And the last guy that was as [00:30:11] Speaker B: far as he was going and he was turning, so he had to get out and find somebody else that was headed towards the border. Now, he said it's midnight and it's. It's in the early night, you know, the 1960s, so you can hitchhike. [00:30:23] Speaker C: But he said the problem was you. You can't catch a ride in the dark. He said you can't just be on [00:30:29] Speaker B: the side of the road somewhere. [00:30:30] Speaker C: He said, you got to get to a town. You got to get somewhere where it's lit and you need to have a stoplight. Then people will stop. You can kind of bend over, talk to him for a minute and see if they'll take you on to the [00:30:42] Speaker B: next place, see if they'll give you a ride. [00:30:44] Speaker C: So he said it's around midnight. He's hoping to catch one final ride [00:30:47] Speaker B: that'll take him through the night and drop him close to the border early the next morning. So he's standing there at the light. He doesn't see any cars. It's a small little West Texas town. All of a sudden, he sees a car coming. [00:30:59] Speaker C: He says, great car. Stops at the light. [00:31:02] Speaker B: And he's about to lean up and [00:31:04] Speaker C: ask for a ride, and he realizes it's a cop. So he steps back from the vehicle, and the cop rolls the window down [00:31:11] Speaker B: on the passenger side, and he says, are you hitchhiking? He says, yes, sir, I am. He says, get in the back. He says, okay. He gets in the back of the police car. They start driving. The cop says, it's illegal to hitchhike in this town. He said, it's illegal. So he said, I could take you [00:31:27] Speaker C: to jail if I wanted to. [00:31:28] Speaker B: You have to spend the night in jail. You got to appear before a judge. You got to make bail. You got to do all that stuff. He said, but I'm going to take pity on you. You're a college student. He said, I'm not going to take you to jail. I'm not going to arrest you for hitchhiking, but it's illegal. So he said, I'm going to drive you out the other side of town, and I'm going to put you out of the car, and you're going to have to figure something out. He said, but if you come back into town, I'm going to arrest you. He said, you can't hitchhike in town. [00:31:50] Speaker C: So he said he drove him through [00:31:51] Speaker B: town, went outside of town, got beyond the city limits. [00:31:54] Speaker C: He said, it's pitch dark. It's pitch dark. [00:31:57] Speaker B: He drops him off at the side of the road. He says, don't come back into town. You can hitch out here if you want to. [00:32:02] Speaker C: And the cop drives off. He said, he's stuck. He's looking around. It's after midnight. It's dark. [00:32:08] Speaker B: It's West Texas. [00:32:09] Speaker C: There's no lights around. There's no stoplight. Why would anybody stop? So he decides, well, if I go [00:32:14] Speaker B: back in town, he's going to arrest me. [00:32:15] Speaker C: He said, I guess I'll just sleep [00:32:16] Speaker B: by the side of the road and maybe somebody will pick me up. Said he sat down, laid down, tried to find a little rock or something he could put his head against. [00:32:24] Speaker C: He said, about 15, 20 minutes later, [00:32:26] Speaker B: out of nowhere, a car pulls up next to him in the dark. [00:32:30] Speaker C: Guy rolls the window down. He says, hey, are you hitchhiking? He says, well, yeah, I am. He said, all right, get in. He said, well, I'm going to the border. He said, I am, too. [00:32:39] Speaker B: I'll drop you off at the border. We'll drive through the night. [00:32:41] Speaker C: He said, great. He gets in the car, starts driving. He asks the guy driving, he says, how in the world did you See me in the dark. It's pitch dark out here. He said, I was laying down. How in the world did you find me in the dark? Guy driving the car says, a cop just pulled me over in town for speeding. Cop said, I give you two options. I write you this speeding ticket, or you can pull outside of town, there's a kid sitting there, and you can pick him up and take him to the border. All right? You understand what I'm saying to you? There's things that God's doing in the fiery furnace that you may not understand. But what you got to do is trust that he's sovereign. Trust that he gets it. Trust that he understands it. I don't know why this person I love is sick. I don't know why this person that I care about is dealing with addiction. This tribulation feels like it's killing me. This pain feels like it's going to overwhelm me. But in the midst of the fiery furnace, there are not three men. There are four. And you are loose. You are loose in the midst of the fiery furnace. And then. And then Nebuchadnezzar promotes him and gives him raises and blessing and promise and future and destiny and calling. But you got to go through the [00:34:03] Speaker B: furnace in order to get to where God's calling you. [00:34:06] Speaker C: And in the midst of the furnace, you got to hold on to him [00:34:09] Speaker B: and trust that he will make a way where there seems to be no way. [00:34:13] Speaker C: He is sovereign in the moments of blessing and mountaintop. [00:34:19] Speaker B: And he is sovereign in pain and a burning fiery furnace. There is no place where he is not in charge and making a way where there seems to be no way. Let me close with this. I have shared this story several times, and I won't go into all the details. I want to give you a specific thing that happened in the midst of it. The first church that we were the pastors at, where I was the lead pastor. I'd worked for a couple years at a large church in Oklahoma, where I was the missions pastor. And I did that for a couple years. [00:34:51] Speaker C: But I felt God was calling me [00:34:52] Speaker B: to be the lead pastor at a church and got a job at a smaller church in Toccoa, Georgia. And we moved to Toccoa and I became the lead pastor. I was there for a year. The first year, it was great. It was wonderful. It was awesome. [00:35:05] Speaker C: We were growing. Things were going good. I just felt like, man, this is great. And almost exactly one year to the [00:35:13] Speaker B: anniversary that I got there, we had a church split. I never referred to it as a church split in that moment because I couldn't wrap my mind around that pain that I was going through. I never called it a church split until I left and looked back on it, and I was like, oh, yeah, that was definitely a church split. And a bunch of people got mad, left, went down the road a couple miles, started their own church. And that wasn't all of it. It was all the stuff that they said about me, Courtney, my kids. I went to pull in the pharmacy in town one day, and I pulled in and parked, and I was doing something on my phone before I got out, and I looked in the rearview mirror, and one of the main ringleaders of that whole church split was walking into the pharmacy. And I slumped down in my chair, and I just sat in my car until I saw them walk out, get in their car, and drive off. I was like, I can't. I don't even want to bump into them in the pharmacy. I just waited till they were gone. [00:36:17] Speaker C: We gone through it for a couple of months, [00:36:21] Speaker B: and I just felt. I mean, it was the fire. It was a burning, fiery furnace. Heated seven times hotter than it's ever been heated. And it was burning me up. It was killing me. It was awful. I had two staff members at that little church. One lady was the receptionist, my secretary, the financial director. [00:36:49] Speaker C: She did all the office stuff. The other one was a kid in his early 20s that I knew from [00:36:55] Speaker B: before, and I convinced him to come [00:36:56] Speaker C: to Dacoa, and it's gonna be great. And he got there, and about seven [00:36:59] Speaker B: months later, we had a church split. And he was like a deer in heaven. He did everything. [00:37:04] Speaker C: He did kids, he oversaw nursery, he did student ministry. He did it all. [00:37:07] Speaker B: It was just the three of us. That was it. [00:37:10] Speaker C: So one night, I didn't have the idea. [00:37:14] Speaker B: One night, the receptionist, her name was Lisa. [00:37:16] Speaker C: Lisa said, why don't y' all come over to the house? [00:37:20] Speaker B: He said. She said, you bring Courtney, Chris, you bring your wife, Chris, Summer. It's been a long time, he said. She said, you bring Courtney, Chris, you bring Summer. And the six of us are just going to pray. Just come over to the house. And the six of us, the three of us and our spouses, we're just going to pray. I said, okay. And I'll be honest with you, I begrudgingly said okay, because I did not have anything left in my tank to pray for. [00:37:52] Speaker C: I just thought that these two people [00:37:54] Speaker B: and their spouses are looking to me for answers as the lead pastor of this church. And I'M burning alive in this furnace. And I got nothing left. [00:38:03] Speaker C: I can't help them. I couldn't help myself. [00:38:06] Speaker B: I had nothing. I had nothing left for them. [00:38:11] Speaker C: And we finished work and I went home. [00:38:13] Speaker B: And then we were going to eat and then go back to her house. So after dinner, I went to the bedroom, and I'm telling you, do not do this, okay? Do not do this. But I had nothing left. So I took my Bible. This is the new one, by the way, that I don't love, but my older Bible that I still have at home. And I'm determined to fix that Bible somehow so I can continue to preach from it. I said, God, I don't have anything left. I said, God, I got nothing. I have nothing to pray tonight. I have no encouragement to tell these four people, five people with Courtney. I. I said, I am burned up and burned out, and I am bereft of prayer. I have nothing left at all. I said, God, I can't pray, so you're gonna have to give me something. And I closed my eyes, and I opened my Bible and I put my finger down. [00:39:14] Speaker C: I'm telling you, don't do this. I'm telling you not to do this. It's the only time in my life in ministry I've ever done it. [00:39:23] Speaker B: But I had nothing left. [00:39:24] Speaker C: I closed my eyes, I opened the [00:39:26] Speaker B: Bible, and I put my finger down, [00:39:32] Speaker C: And my finger hit Psalm 41. [00:39:36] Speaker B: I will not read all of it to you, but I will read some of it. [00:39:41] Speaker C: Psalm 40:1. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on the earth. You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. My enemies speak evil of me. When will he die and his name perish? And if he comes to see me? He speaks lies. Even my own familiar friend and whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. [00:40:10] Speaker B: But you, O Lord, be merciful to [00:40:12] Speaker C: me and raise me up that I may repay them by this. I know that you are well pleased with me because my enemy does not triumph over me. As for me, you upheld me in my integrity and set me before your face forever. And in that moment, I knew that my God would sustain me no matter what the fiery furnace was. He is sovereign. He is in charge. He will sustain us. And the furnace is never fun. The furnace is never enjoyable. The fire is not where we want to be. But. But if we will hold on to the fourth man in the fire, he will deliver us. He will bring us out. He will set us free, and we will inherit all the promises he has for us on the other side. I read that psalm, and I told [00:41:21] Speaker B: Courtney, I said, let's go. [00:41:23] Speaker C: And, man, I busted into her house and we just prayed it down for a couple of hours. And I read that psalm over and over again. [00:41:32] Speaker B: And, you know, those people didn't come back to the church. None of that happened. [00:41:40] Speaker C: But it wasn't about that. What it was about was I knew in that moment that God would sustain me. No matter the situation, no matter how bad it is, no matter how hot it is. The furnace heated seven times hotter than it's ever been. [00:42:02] Speaker B: And there is yet a fourth man in the fire. [00:42:07] Speaker C: In the worst moments of your life, hold on to him. The person that you love is sick. Hold on to him. There is a fourth man in your fire. The person that you love is addicted. Hold on to him. The fourth man in the fire. That relationship that you think is irrevocably severed. Hold on to the fourth man in the fire. That thing, that pain that you think is never going to go away. Hold on to the fourth man in the fire. [00:42:45] Speaker B: The fiery furnace is awful. But if we hold on to God, we discover wonderful new things about ourselves and about who he is in our lives. Hold on to the fourth man in the fire. I'm going to pray in just a moment, and then we're going to have a moment where the altars are going to be open. Because my feeling is that a bunch of us with this many people gathered together, there's a bunch of us who are going through a fiery furnace. And these altars are going to be open and you can come to the [00:43:16] Speaker C: front and pray by yourself. We'll have prayer team members if you want somebody to pray with you. But if you're going through the furnace, who you have to hold on to is the fourth man in the fire. Because you are not alone. He is with you, and he will never leave you or forsake you, no matter what you're facing. There is a fourth man in the [00:43:34] Speaker B: fire, and he will sustain you in the midst of it. When I say amen to this prayer in a moment, I encourage you to come to the front. [00:43:43] Speaker C: No matter what your fiery furnace looks like. [00:43:45] Speaker B: God is still sovereign and he is still moving on your behalf. Let's pray. God, I ask that you finish this message in the hearts of every person here. [00:43:55] Speaker C: God, no matter what we're going through, no matter what we're facing, God, it's so hard. Sometimes the fire is so hot. It seems so painful. It threatens to overwhelm us and overcome us and burn us up. God. But we know that you are sovereign. You're burning out stuff that shouldn't be there. You're showing us new revelations about your son. We're inheriting the blessings that you have for us. The fire is painful, but it is necessary we hold on to you and your sovereignty. If you need somebody to pray with you, or if you need to pray over a furnace situation in your life, a season of fire in your life, I encourage you to come to the [00:44:33] Speaker B: front as we sing this final song. [00:44:36] Speaker C: Come to the front. You are not alone in the fire. There is a fourth man in the fire and he will sustain you. Come to the front, pour, pour it [00:44:48] Speaker B: out before him and allow the fourth [00:44:50] Speaker C: man in the fire to show you [00:44:52] Speaker B: freedom and blessing that you never thought of or imagined. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. [00:45:01] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to the Travis Rutland Podcast. If you enjoyed this message and you're in the Cartersville, Georgia area, we invite you to join us at Liberty Square Church. You can also watch online and connect with us on Facebook and YouTube. We'll see you next week for another message from Travis Rutland.