Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. I bless you to be Manasseh-like. like the name that means forgotten troubles. No matter what voices of shame have hellishly plagued you, no matter how persistent the inward gnawing guilt. There is, according to Paul in Romans 8, no condemnation.
for those who are in Christ Jesus. In Christ, you're fully, forever forgiven. The Lord remembers your sin no more, Jeremiah prophesied. He has removed your trespasses from you as far as the east is from the west, the psalmist said. Christ has paid for your sin in full.
So God in His righteousness will never require your payment for a debt that is already been cleared. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. Whatever the idol may be, let not it trick the Christ follower into any distraction from true worship. Idols aren't cute. They aren't harmless.
They aren't tolerable. They are death agents, tools of demons, and tricks of hell designed to enslave us. And in the end, they all must come down. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light.
I'm Daniel Britt. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series called Daniel, as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer.
Contact us at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright.
We're in a series on Daniel. Remarkable stories, and today we get to a story about his friends. In the fiery furnace. It's a story about the redemptive nature of God's plan, how. It's amazing how sometimes the enemy's attempts can Can just backfire on them.
This is part of what makes, I think, law-abiding citizens find extra hearty laughter in the stories of criminals' folly. Justice seems a little sweeter when the wrongdoer has a plan that backfires on him and he's caught by his own mistakes. They're funny. I'd love to just read about 20 of these things. But true stories.
For example, drug possession defendant Christopher Janssen, while on trial in Pontiac, Michigan, claimed that he'd been searched without a warrant. And the prosecutor reported that the officer didn't need a warrant because there had been a suspicious bulge in Mr. Janssen's jacket that was suspected to be a gun. The defendant, who happened to be wearing the same jacket in court that day, handed over the garment to the judge so the judge could examine it, whereupon the judge discovered in that pocket a packet of cocaine. And the article said the judge laughed so hard that he required a five-minute recess to compose himself.
Or In Colorado Springs, a man robbed a corner store at gunpoint, and after the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber spotted a bottle of scotch back behind the counter and demanded that be put in the bag as well. The cashier refused, saying I don't believe you're over age 21. Where, believe it or not, a dispute arose over the robber's age until finally, the article says, the thief relented and showed his driver's license as proof of his age. The cashier said, all right, I'll see you all over 21 and gave him the scotch, and of course, promptly called the police with the name and address of the robber. But my favorite story.
Is about a lineup that took place at the police station. The DA had requested a robbery victim to come in and to look at the lineup of five people. The suspect was actually the last of the five. And each man in the lineup was told he needed to step forward and say the words. Give me all your money.
And I also like some change in quarters, dimes, and nickels. And then step back. And so each of the people in the lineup, they stood forward and they said their lines just as they were supposed to until it came to the suspect, who by this time had gotten agitated and stepped forward and blurted out, That isn't even what I said. Are you ready for some good news? You might be in a raging spiritual battle.
But I tell you this: no weapon formed against you shall be able to prosper. And in fact, your would-be thief, the enemy, the serpent of old, is going to come subject to the redemptive plan of God. And in fact of matter, those things that the enemy has meant for evil, God has a way of bringing it about for your good. The message today is called Backfire, the day the enemy's plan backfired on him. It's a message about Daniel's three friends, and it is a message about your victory and mine in Jesus Christ.
In Daniel chapter 3.
So, about 600 years before Christ, Daniel and his three good friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that's their Babylonian-given names. They are deported as part of Nebuchadnezzar's policy. He'd sacked Jerusalem, he destroyed the temple, and Daniel and his friends found themselves favored, even though they were foreigners. When Nebuchadnezzar constructs a 90-foot golden statue and demands that everyone bow down and worship the image every time they hear the music, Daniel's friends refuse. And we pick up the story in Daniel chapter 3 at verse 8.
Therefore, at that time, certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever. You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, 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. 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. 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. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods, or worship the golden image that I have set up?
Now, if you're ready when you hear the sound of a horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music to fall down and worship the image I've made, well and 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? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar. We have no need to answer you in this matter.
If this be so, I will 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. Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated.
And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast him into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated. The flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, Did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They answered and said to the king, True, O king. And 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, and he declared, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedno came out from the fire, and the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not any power over the bodies of those men. Their hair, 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 or speak so. And now everything begins to change.
What a story. Yeah. Same. This began with King Nebuchadnezzar having a terrible dream. It was a dream that was very troubling to him, and he couldn't rest until he.
really understood it. And so his soothsayer said, Tell us the dream, King, and we will give you its interpretation. He said, No, here's what I demand. I need to really know that someone has really heard a supernatural revelation. And so I demand that not only do you give me the interpretation of the dream, but you must tell me what it is that I actually dreamed.
And of course, all of the wise men said, no one but the gods know what you have dreamed. It is impossible. No one can do this. And yet, it was that Nebuchadnezzar issued a royal edict and said, unless someone told him his dream and the interpretation of the dream, that all of the wise men in the land would be destroyed. And Daniel and his three friends would have been included in that mass execution.
So either out of desperation or great faith or both, Daniel declared that he would get the revelation that the king required. And indeed, the Lord showed Daniel the king's dream and its interpretation. In short, the dream foretold the ultimate demise of Babylon and the rise of three more political empires that would be followed by a fifth kingdom that. It would start small, but would be unshakable and would take over the world. What was Nebuchadnezzar's response to Daniel's prophetic insight?
Was it to fall on his knees and trust in the great God of Daniel? Not at that time. It was not. Was it to wisely start strategizing for some sort of succession plan to the throne? No.
Instead, what the king did was he built a giant statue. An image laden with gold that stood ninety feet high, held a big dedication ceremony, and heralded an edict commanding that all peoples, nations, and languages, whenever they hear the sound of music, they are to fall and worship the image. See, when people are lost and afraid, because of the inevitable destruction of their earthly hope. they gravitate towards idolatry. That's what causes idolatry.
If you don't have a relationship, a connection with with a living God than the desperation to have a God and the longing to get some sort of assurance. That there will not be the demise that you fear causes you to set up an idol. An idol is something that you construct. with your own resources. Exalt it as life-giving and invite others to worship it along with you.
An idol is something that is lifeless. but it is attributed as if it has life-giving power. Idol could be almost anything. For some people, it might become money. Money's a useful thing.
But if you begin to think the way that I can deal with my fear of the uncertainty of the future. is to simply fill my barns. and fill my bank account more and more. If you think that that is your assurance, then it can become an idol to you. And many people worship at the idol.
of materialism. Or it could be something like approval of others. If I say I must have everyone's approval to really feel good about my life, then it can become an idol. See, when we have no assurance of final and full blessedness, we construct golden images to give us a false sense of security. It is those who know that they are fully.
Finally and forever blessed that have no need for idols. Jeremiah Prophesied actually to the Babylonian exiles. And this was part of his prophetic word from the Lord. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of delusion.
At the time of their punishment, they shall perish. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, because the idol, void of any real power, serving only as an anesthesia for angst, but never a cure, mocks the idol maker. Here's how it happens: if you say, I have to have money, then the idol that you put on the shelf called money and wealth looks down at you, and anytime the stock market takes a little dip, it laughs in your face. And now you feel worse than you did before you ever put it on the shelf. If you ever said, Well, I have to have the approval of others, and you make an idol out of it, you put it up on the shelf, then the first time that somebody rejects you, it hurts all the more, and your idol laughs at you, it mocks you, and says, Look, you've been rejected.
And then you find yourself trying all the harder to win others' approval. You see, the answer to the idol of money or the idol of approval or any other kind of idol you might ever have in your life is not to actually find and fulfill a sufficient supply of money or approval. The answer and the peace comes only when you take the idol down off of the shelf. The answer comes when your idols turn to dust. The answer comes when you're connected to the living God who says, Whether you have money or you don't have money, fear not, for I am with you.
The one who says to you, Whether you get approval from others or you do not, I have approved of you through Jesus Christ and my ship. Blood.
So the idols must come down. Whatever the idol may be, let not it trick the Christ follower into any distraction from true worship. Idols aren't cute, they aren't harmless, they aren't tolerable, they are death agents, tools of demons, and tricks of hell designed to enslave us. And in the end, they all must come down. So Daniel's three friends, they knew God.
They knew God was the giver of life. They knew God too well to be enamored with the statue or any statue. They knew that it was a. A phony idol that had no breath to give. Their refusal to worship the idol was not just a mere adherence.
to the Ten Commandments. It was a relationship Wherein they knew the source of life. It was essentially as if the Hebrews were saying, We will be more alive in your furnace, even if our bodies burn, because we will be worshiping God than we would ever be simply breathing and existing outside of the furnace. with no God. We are more alive praising the Lord than we are.
Getting all the acclaim of the world. To turn away from the living Lord to a lifeless idol is to turn away from life itself. He who seeks to keep his life loses it, but he who loses it for my sake finds it. And the king's henchmen not only did not understand this sort of thinking, but they hated it. They hated the fact that these Hebrew young men would not bow down to the statue, and therefore they hated the men.
And when Nebuchadnezzar learned about it, he himself was enraged. He was furious. Because when you refuse to worship someone else's idol, the idol maker is threatened. The world just hates it when you won't bow down to the world's idols. It's an ultimate threat to someone's worldview when you don't need what they say that you need.
And if you ever see somebody who is not subject to all the idols of the world, who's not enamored by the things that the world is enamored with, who sees the glittering 90-foot golden image and does not have any need to bow down to it, there will be two things that happen. Many, many people would want to throng and be around such a man and find out what the secret of the peace and joy was in his heart. But those, the power wielders, the brokers, the religious elite and aristocracy, they would despise such a one. And so it was with Jesus. Jesus just came and had no need for any of the golden idols.
Idolatrous images, because he had an uninterrupted and perfect fellowship with his Father in heaven. And the crowds crushed in upon him to learn and hear the words of life. But those who were the power brokers, they despised him. And so it was that Nebuchadnezzar was furious and he mocked and he said, You will be thrown into my fiery furnace. And he asked the all-important question, Who is the God who will deliver you out of my hand?
And it's as though the text says Good question, Your Royal Highness. Yeah. Glad you asked it. We've got a story to tell you.
Okay.
So Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego come and appear before the king, and he says, Will you bow down? And they say, No, thank you. And he says to them, How dare you defy my order? Do you not realize I can snuff out your lives with just a motion of the finger, a look of my eye, or a nod of my head? And they said, we don't really even need to talk to you about it.
They didn't fight with the king. They didn't put the king down. They didn't try to start a revolt. They just said, we don't have any need to talk to you about it because some things in life are just non-negotiables. And this is one of them.
We don't worship idols. And we know the Lord. And so we're not going to worship this lifeless thing. And then they said, 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 be it known to you, O king, that we will not, no matter what, serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Beloved, here is a theology you could build your life upon. Our God can, and our God will, but no matter what. I will praise him. Still.
Our God can deliver us out of this fiery furnace, and our God will deliver us out of your hand. But even if it doesn't come in the way in which we envision it to happen, We're still not going to worship your idol. And we're still going to praise the Lord. Because at the end of the day, O King, Whether our bodies are burned up in the fire, or whether we are spared from this fire at this time. They end of the day Our God will Will still be alive on his throne.
And your statue will still have no breath or power whatsoever. Our God can. And our God will. Alan Wright. In today's teaching, Backfire.
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org. Idols aren't talked about much every day, at least in those terms, I don't think. It seems to be a little bit of an archaic word, maybe, but they really are just as prevalent and dangerous today as ever. Oh, absolutely. Idolatry is prevalent today as any day.
It just comes up in different forms. But anytime, Daniel, that we say, I believe in God, but I also need to have, and you fill in the blank, in order to be happy and fulfilled, that likely becomes an idol in our lives. And so this story about the giant idol... That Nebuchadnezzar builds is just a reminder to us of how much God opposes all idolatry. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
