Courage Under Fire | Faithful in a Faithless World Week 3

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads, I'm Kyle.

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- And I'm Hannah.

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- We're here to guide and equip you

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for the adventurous life that God has for you.

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Today we're continuing our dive into the book of Daniel

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and my friend Hannah right here is going to talk

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about the key to dealing with bullies.

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- That's right, I sure am.

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And listen, maybe bullies make you feel

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the way that Elmo feels about Rocco.

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Regardless, we're going to get to the bottom

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of how to deal with bullies and what God wants

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us to take away from the process starting right now.

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- Why? Why doesn't? Why doesn't Elmo like Rocco?

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- I'll explain that to you later.

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- Like, I saw it, I didn't understand.

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- It's a long story. - Okay.

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- The book of Daniel is a story of a faithful man

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and the unmatched power of God.

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After being taken captive from their home city,

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Jerusalem, to an unknown land called Babylon,

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four very special royal Israelites

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were chosen to serve the king.

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Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

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Today we focus on Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,

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better known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,

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or the three Hebrew boys.

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The King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, loved himself

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so much that he put a huge statue

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to remind people of his imperial power.

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And he wanted everyone to worship it

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whenever they heard the special music. Everyone.

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But the Hebrew boys, men, Boyz II Men,

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they were not about it.

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Today we explore their story

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and what it means for our life.

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- Don't you hate bullies?

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I've never met anyone who actually likes them.

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Well, see, I found the key to standing up to them.

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Hey, I'm Hannah Driskill,

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and today we're going to talk about bullies.

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And before you check out, I promise you, you have one.

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Now, maybe you don't call it a bully

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because you know you're like an adult,

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but I promise you that you have one.

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And maybe it's not the kid in the hallway anymore

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who steals your lunch money,

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but it could be the person at work

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who takes credit for your ideas over and over,

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even after you've talked to them.

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It's the person who won't listen to your feelings

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and your side of the story,

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even after you've asked them to

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and you told them how it makes you feel.

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It's Jan from Finance who steals your lunch,

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even when you label it over and over. Thanks, Jan.

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Listen, I can talk about bullies because,

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well, one, I was a bully, believe it or not.

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And two, I missed my opportunity to stop one.

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And finally, I've got about four bullies

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that I'm dealing with right now as I talk to you.

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See, about the year 2000, I was a bully. Yep, me.

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Now I was only about four years old,

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but I still remember it.

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I bullied this kid named Imani Newsome.

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And I'll never forget it.

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I'll never forget her because I used to tease her

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every single day, maybe about her clothes,

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about her hair, but mostly about the fact

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that she was the quietest kid in the class.

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And I'm ashamed to say it,

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but I even used to pinch her during nap time

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as a way to threaten her from snitching on me

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to our teacher, Miss Smith.

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Even though I was a small four year old,

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I was a big bully because I wanted Imani

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to feel worse than me for being who she was.

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Then, when I was in high school, I actually

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missed my shot to stand up to a bully.

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See, I had given up my bullying days.

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I had changed my ways.

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And there was this kid named Gameiro.

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Now he was a nice guy, but he was pretty eccentric.

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He walk differently, he talk differently.

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But most of all, he dressed differently.

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And he was an oddball, for sure.

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And he was bullied for it, sometimes violently.

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Now, while I was never an active bully to Gameiro,

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like I said, I gave up my bullying ways.

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I also never stopped it.

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And there was this one specific time that I remember

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God was nudging me and nudging me

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clearly to stand up for Him and to stop the bullying,

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and I choked. I simply couldn't do it.

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Instead of standing up,

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I actually cracked under the pressure,

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caring more about what my associates thought of me

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than being obedient to God.

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You know, I think standing up to bullies

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or simply not being a bully

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might sound easier than it actually is.

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I think we all would like to be

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people who stand up to bullies.

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We all would like to be people who fight injustices.

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But I think at the same time, in the back of our minds,

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we fear that if the time came to actually do it,

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we'd miss our shot.

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But if you want to be a courageous person,

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a person of integrity,

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a person who is obedient to God even when it's hard,

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then you're going to have to stand up to some bullies.

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And I think today's story will give you and I

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the key that we need to stand up

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to our biggest, scariest bullies.

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So let me set the stage for you.

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We've been talking about the book of Daniel

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and looking at his life

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and exploring what it means for our lives.

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Now what's happened to date is that this guy

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named King Nebuchadnezzar had plundered

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and conquered the city of Jerusalem.

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This is also the city where God's chosen people,

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the Jews, the Israelites lived.

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And when he conquered it, he took a lot of stuff.

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Most of it was material, but he also took some people

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that he considered to be the cream of the crop,

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the brightest, the smartest, and the most handsome.

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And he chose them to come and serve him in his palace.

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Now these folks names were Daniel

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and some of his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,

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better known by their Babylonian given names

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Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

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But if you're like me,

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you grew up calling him a bad Negro. Same difference.

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See, they were chosen to serve the king

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who believe nothing like they believed.

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And today we're going to learn how they stay faithful,

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even in the midst of that.

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So you might imagine King Nebuchadnezzer,

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this big conqueror. Yep, he's a big deal.

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And you know what?

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He actually has the proof to back up

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that he is a big deal,

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but he wants everyone around him to know it.

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So he sets up this 90 foot high and this 9 foot wide

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gold statue to flex his imperial power.

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Daniel 3 says:

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You see, King Nebuchadnezzar possessed a quality

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that is a clear indicator that he was a bully.

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He had insecurity.

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No, not the show with Issa Rae, insecurity.

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See this Scripture is saying that King Nebuchadnezzar

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was so convinced of his power that not only

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did he put up this large gold image,

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but he invited everybody who was worth anything

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to come and see it.

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He essentially is hosting the equivalent

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of the Babylonian Met Gala,

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the Who's Who Party of the Year.

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And even though it seems like it,

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he doesn't just put this statue up

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so people can come party and tell them how great he is,

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although they do that.

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He puts up the statue because he is insecure.

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See just one chapter before in Daniel 2,

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King Nebuchadnezzar had a very scary dream

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that Daniel helped interpret for him.

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The gist of the dream is simple:

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it's that his kingdom was not as powerful

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as he thought it was, and there was a time stamp on it.

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In the dream, there was a statue made of gold,

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silver, bronze, iron and clay.

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And when Daniel interpreted the dream,

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he plainly shared with the king that in the dream,

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the gold represented himself, King Nebuchadnezzar.

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But the other materials represented

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all the other kingdoms that would come after him.

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Until finally, a kingdom would come that would be

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so powerful that it will crush all the other materials

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and thus all the other kingdoms, including him.

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And so like any big bully,

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he really can't even fathom this.

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He can't even think about the thought of losing

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and putting up this statue is, by the way,

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made of all gold, is his way of saying,

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"My reign, my authority, that is never going to end."

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His statue is deliberately contradicting

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God's declared plan.

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He's saying, "No, brah. No, no, no, no, no.

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My kingdom? That's never going to stop.

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No kingdoms are coming after me.

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And in fact, that's scary dream, that never happened."

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So he built a statue for the same reason.

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I bullied Imani Newsome.

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See, I was the second youngest child of seven

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at the time, and I had nobody to boss,

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only the opportunity to be bossed,

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until I met Imani Newsome and I knew I could boss her.

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See, I was insecure

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about being the littlest in my own home.

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So I chose to make someone else feel small.

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And I couldn't just be insecure.

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I had to do something about it.

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So King Nebuchadnezzar, he does something about it.

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He declares this deadly decree.

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And he makes sure that all Babylon's elite

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and all the important people are there to see it.

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See, he actually doesn't care about them

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just seeing his really beautiful statue.

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He wants to test their allegiance to him.

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He wants them, and actually everybody, to worship it

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when they hear music.

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In verse six it says:

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King Nebuchadnezzar was saying,

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"You will appease my insecurities and worship me.

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And by the way, if you don't,

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I've got this big, deadly plan

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to bully you into doing it."

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He's giving everybody a very clear choice: bow or die?

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And here's where our main characters enter the story.

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Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego won't be bullied,

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and they teach us something

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about standing up to our own bullies.

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For the most part, King Nebuchadnezzar

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is getting exactly what he wants.

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His insecurities are laid to rest

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as people all around him are hearing the music,

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and when they hear it,

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they literally stop whatever they're doing

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and bow to worship this gold image.

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So if you're frying chicken or cutting hair, guess what?

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The chicken doesn't get finished being fried

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and your hair is just not getting cut that day

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because it's time to bow.

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Now, if you know the story, then you know what's coming.

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And if you don't know the story, I'm going to tell you.

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The three Hebrew boys, as some people call

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Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they simply don't bow.

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And actually they don't make a show of it.

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See, they aren't looking to make some giant statement.

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They aren't interested in holding a press conference

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or posting it on Tik Tok or Instagram.

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They actually aren't looking to be seen at all.

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They are simply following the ways

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of their Jewish culture.

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I think today, when we see people

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standing up to bullies,

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standing up for things that they believe are right,

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they do it with this intention to craft

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just the right message

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so it'll piss just the right amount of people off

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to create just enough outrage that will have people

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making a big following so that everyone

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who disagrees with them will feel awful.

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See, but Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego,

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they have a different approach.

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Their resistance to the bully

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isn't actually about rallying others up

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and getting as many people as they can

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to be on their bandwagon and agree with them

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and make others feel terrible.

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These three guys are doing it just for themselves,

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not for the sake of other people,

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and not for the sake of being seen.

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They're doing it because they know it's right.

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They're committed to serving the true God,

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and they show it by not bowing.

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You see, in fact, their acts would have

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probably went entirely unnoticed

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if it wasn't for their haters.

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The Bible tells us that there were certain Chaldeans,

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which basically just means like a magician

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or a powerful leader at the time,

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who maliciously accused Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

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And they went and they snitched to the king.

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They said, "Oh, king, live forever.

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You, oh king, have made a decree that every man

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who hears every kind of music should fall down

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and worship the golden image.

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There are certain Jews whom you've appointed,

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by the way, over the affairs of the province of Babylon:

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These men, oh king, they pay no attention to you.

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They don't serve your gods

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or worship the golden image that you've set up."

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And I see the haters just came out of the woodwork.

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And they didn't just come,

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they actually had a malicious motive.

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They were looking for a promotion

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and some political gain.

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They're hating on the position

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of Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego.

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And they're looking actually to hopefully

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get them killed, likely so they can take their position.

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See, I bet some of us can relate

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to Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego in this moment,

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because here we are minding our business,

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doing our thing and haters just come

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trying to mess with things.

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So after the haters have snitched,

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this insecure king is furious and he demands to see

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the three Hebrew boys and he threatens their life.

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He reminds them that if you don't bow,

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you will be thrown into an unforgiving flame.

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He's saying, bow or die.

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Now the king in his pride, he asked them,

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"Who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands?"

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In that moment, they don't shake.

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They don't buckle. They don't get fearful.

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They look directly in the bully's, I imagine,

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and they say to him:

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Now, King Nebuchadnezzar wasn't mad before this moment,

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he is livid right now

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because these guys are literally embarrassing him.

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They're not just denouncing his power and saying,

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"I don't care what you do, we're not bowing."

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They're doing it in front of everyone,

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the whole Met Gala people is right there

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to watch him denounce the power,

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and they're saying, "Whatcha gonna to do about it?"

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He's got something to prove.

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Now the three Hebrew boys, their response, it's so bold.

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It is. It's bold.

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But the kicker about that moment

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is not just the bold response, it's that

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it wasn't the moment that the Hebrew boys

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had decided that they will be committed to God

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and not bow to the king.

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See, they had to decide that they believed

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in God's power long before the moment came,

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or they would have easily bowed in the moment.

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I want to set this up for you.

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You've got a scary king right here. I mean, scary.

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Your boss, in fact, who can chop your head off

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and then you've got a fire that you can see

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and smell, and it's real.

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See, in our own lives when we're standing between

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being committed to God and bowing to

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whatever is the cultural flavor of the month

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or whatever is the pressure that we're currently facing,

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if we've not already decided that we will be

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a believer of God and His power,

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more than the world's power, we're going to bow.

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I know we will probably all like to think,

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"Oh, my gosh, like, no, absolutely not,

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that's not going to be me.

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I would totally stand up for God.

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I'm all for Jesus. He's like, and I love him."

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Let me tell you, like I said,

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when you're standing between that furious king

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and that very visible blazing furnace,

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it's real easy to forget

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that you want to stand up for an invisible God.

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See, I told you the story about how I had missed my shot

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to stand up to a bully in high school

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because when I was in the hot seat,

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the pressure was actually too much

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to make the decision in that moment.

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The picture that I'm trying to paint here

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is that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,

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they were not superhuman with super faith.

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They simply had made their minds up that

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they were going to serve God no matter what, and

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they made it up long before they were faced with the fire.

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Their story teaches us that

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if we don't prepare ahead of time

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to stand up to the bully, we will bow.

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- Hey, quick interruption to tell you

00:17:04

giving is a critical spiritual act.

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I'm going to tell you exactly why in under 30 seconds.

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Go.

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You know giving us something we do to honor God.

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It's a discipline that we must work to develop

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because it's something that exposes our heart to God,

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tells Him kind of where we're at.

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And if you want to take the step

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of showing your heart to God and say,

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"Yes, I want to give.

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I want to honor You in that way, God,"

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you can go to Crossroads.net/give for more.

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Now back to the message.

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- Maybe some of us are being faced with fire right now even.

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Maybe some of us are in situations

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that feel like a rock and a hard place,

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or between a furious king and a hot fire.

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And we're just not sure what to do.

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I told you myself, I got about four bullies

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that I'm currently dealing with.

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And my buliies, they don't look like King Nebuchadnezzar.

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In fact, they don't even talk,

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but they do look like anxiety around my health.

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They do look like fear of the health

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of my young nephew who needs a life changing surgery.

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They do look like anger and like pride,

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and these bullies, all of them are screaming.

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They want me to bow.

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They're all looking for me to bow to him

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and forget that God was ever faithful.

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Whatever your bullies are,

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I want to encourage you, don't bow.

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And here's what helps us do that:

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prepping ahead of time.

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And we do that by building our faith through God's Word

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and having the courage to believe.

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The three Hebrew boys had courage to believe,

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not because, like I said,

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they were some superhuman Christians,

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not because they had everything together,

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but simply because they had seen God do things before

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and they knew He was able.

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They had probably already lived

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full lives of faithfulness, but they also came from

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a long line of people, the Jewish nation,

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who had watched God do the impossible.

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I want you to take a second to look back

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and think back over your own life.

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Think back and look back and see if you can find

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the places where God has absolutely shown up

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and been good.

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Whether you've been walking with Jesus for a long time,

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whether you're thinking about this Jesus thing,

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you don't even know what you believe.

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This still applies to you.

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I want you to take a second and think about

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if any of the good moments in your life

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you can attribute to God's goodness.

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And if you can't think about your own life,

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think about the life of your friends or your neighbors.

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Where has God been good?

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I had a mentor once, a good one at that,

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who told me that sometimes we get spiritual amnesia.

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And what she was talking about was not real amnesia,

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but she was saying we can forget the goodness

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and faithfulness of God.

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See, when we remember God's faithfulness,

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it gives us this courage to believe,

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it builds our faith.

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So something practical that I do

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is I just write all the good things that God has done,

00:20:00

I write them down.

00:20:02

I just keep this running list

00:20:03

that I start at the beginning of the year

00:20:05

so that any time I'm actually discouraged,

00:20:07

any time I'm down, any time I'm facing my bully,

00:20:09

I look at that list and I remember

00:20:11

that God has actually been good.

00:20:12

He's actually been faithful.

00:20:14

Another thing I do is I read my Bible.

00:20:17

And it sounds really simple, but it's actually

00:20:20

a book full of the stories of God's faithfulness.

00:20:23

And you know what?

00:20:24

You can do that right now with our whole church

00:20:26

by joining us in the Bible Challenge.

00:20:29

You see, when we do these things,

00:20:31

like hop on the app and do the Bible Challenge

00:20:33

or learn about Jesus through scriptures,

00:20:35

or look at our list of all the ways He's been good,

00:20:37

when we do these things, although they seem simple,

00:20:40

it builds our faith

00:20:41

and it gives us the courage to believe.

00:20:45

It reminds us that God's power, and it gives us a chance

00:20:48

to stand in the face of the fire

00:20:49

and not to bow to the loudest and the angriest

00:20:52

and even the scariest of our bullies.

00:20:54

And if you're like me, it gives us the courage

00:20:56

to stand despite what other people think about you.

00:21:01

And it even makes us choose death,

00:21:03

rather than bowing to something we know is wrong.

00:21:06

So let's hurry up, and let's get to the good part.

00:21:08

So the king gets really mad and he's, like, going crazy.

00:21:11

He's like, "Oh my gosh, like, can't believe

00:21:13

that you're not going to bow."

00:21:15

But he's not just mad because they won't bow.

00:21:16

He's especially mad because they're choosing to,

00:21:19

like I said, defy him in front of all his elite friends.

00:21:22

So he gets so mad that he's like,

00:21:24

"Let's turn the heat up.

00:21:25

Let's turn the fire seven times hotter."

00:21:28

And this fire is so hot that

00:21:30

the people who are guarding the fire, they die.

00:21:33

Can you imagine, like, getting dressed for work that day?

00:21:36

Like, "Oh, putting on my little guard thing.

00:21:37

I'm about to join the service

00:21:39

and I'm going to serve the king."

00:21:40

You did not expect to die by the fire

00:21:43

that wasn't even meant to kill you.

00:21:45

But that's how hot this fire is

00:21:47

because the king wants to make sure

00:21:48

that these disobedient delinquents are killed.

00:21:52

But spoiler alert: they don't die.

00:21:55

In fact, the Bible is certain to note that

00:21:58

they were bound up in ropes in all of their clothing.

00:22:01

But when they come out of the fire,

00:22:03

not a single thing on them is burned,

00:22:05

not even their hair, and they don't smell like smoke.

00:22:09

And that seems crazy.

00:22:10

But what's even crazier is what happens next,

00:22:13

because King Nebuchadnezzar is so pleased,

00:22:15

he's so amazed that their God has saved them,

00:22:18

that he issues this violent decree

00:22:20

that anybody who speaks against the God

00:22:22

of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, you know what?

00:22:25

I've got news for you: You're going to be ruined.

00:22:27

In fact, I'm going to tear you limb to limb.

00:22:30

And that's really violent.

00:22:31

And after that, he promotes them again.

00:22:35

And they become even bigger, more powerful bosses

00:22:38

than they already were.

00:22:40

God uses this moment to boss up

00:22:42


00:22:44

See, what their haters intended to be their downfall

00:22:47

was actually their promotion.

00:22:49

God uses this moment to shine

00:22:52

through the three Hebrew boys,

00:22:54

and not just so that they haters could see it.

00:22:56

Not just so King Nebuchadnezzar can see it,

00:22:58

but so that all the powerful people

00:23:00

of the Land of Babylon get to see it.

00:23:02

And they all get to see God's power

00:23:04

through Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

00:23:08

See, they chose to stand,

00:23:10

settled in their own convictions,

00:23:12

believing in the power of God.

00:23:13

And the impossible happened for everybody to see.

00:23:18

Listen, I don't want to fool you.

00:23:20

Sometimes God will allow us to be tested

00:23:23

and even tempted with our biggest bullies.

00:23:26

But when we are faithful to God

00:23:29

in the face of difficulty, our scariest moments,

00:23:33

He turns around and He blesses us.

00:23:37

The pressures of life are real.

00:23:40

And sometimes they put us

00:23:41

in these really tight situations,

00:23:43

situations that make us want to bow

00:23:45

and to give in to whatever our pressing circumstance

00:23:48

is in the moment.

00:23:49

Situations that make us forget all about

00:23:52

the goodness and faithfulness of God.

00:23:53

And maybe you're like me and you feel like,

00:23:55

"Man, I've actually already failed because

00:23:57

I was given the opportunity to stand up for Jesus,

00:23:59

and I choked."

00:24:01

But I've got good news for all of us.

00:24:04

This story reminds us that even when we're facing haters

00:24:07

and bullies, and even when all the odds are against us

00:24:10

and there's pressure on every side.

00:24:12

And yes, even when we feel like we've disappointed God,

00:24:15

we can take a look back at God's faithfulness

00:24:18

and have the courage to stand and believe in His power.

00:24:21

And when we do this, God does impossible things.

00:24:24

When we respond to the challenge

00:24:26

of standing in the face of the impossible circumstances,

00:24:29

with faith and with courage, God shows up.

00:24:33

And then he doesn't just show up.

00:24:34

He bosses us up, y'all.

00:24:36

He promotes us, takes us to the next level in Him,

00:24:39

teaches us something new, and He moves on our behalf.

00:24:43

And this happens when we have the courage

00:24:45

to face our biggest bullies by preparing ahead of time

00:24:49

and being sure that we know,

00:24:51

that we know that we know that God is able.

00:24:55

You remember Imani Newsome, you know,

00:24:58

she never actually stood up to me to my face.

00:25:00

But even in the face of all of my four year old threats,

00:25:04

she had the courage to do something else.

00:25:05

She told our teacher, believe it or not.

00:25:08

And guess what? It made a difference.

00:25:10

Now, we never became friends,

00:25:12

but she knew something that I didn't.

00:25:14

When we have the courage to stand up to our bullies,

00:25:17

our lives change for the better.

00:25:19

And the best news is we don't have to do it alone.

00:25:23

God is able and He will help us.

00:25:26

We just need to remember His faithfulness

00:25:29

and have the courage to believe.

00:25:33

You know how to do that Bible Challenge

00:25:35

that I talked about happens right here in this app.

00:25:39

Right here you read and you journal

00:25:41

and it's right at your fingertips.

00:25:43

It's all happening and going down in the Crossroads app.

00:25:45

- The best part is we get through that together.

00:25:47

So when you do that, you'll see journals from me, from Brian.

00:25:50

- From me. - From Hannah in there.

00:25:52

We can read the Bible together.

00:25:54

But don't just take what we write as you're,

00:25:56

like, expert input.

00:25:57

I mean, hopefully we are like somewhat of an expert on --

00:26:00

- A little bit, a tiny bit.

00:26:01

But we've actually made something even better for you.

00:26:03

It's the Daniel guidebook. You can get it for free.

00:26:06

It's got context, history,

00:26:09

things that you're not going to get

00:26:10

just by reading the words alone,

00:26:12

or maybe even reading what we write about it.

00:26:14

So get this. It's completely free.

00:26:16

Go to Crossroads.net/BibleChallenge.

00:26:18

We will mail one to your house.

00:26:20

- That's excellent.

00:26:21

We'll see you next week on Crossroads.

00:26:26

- There is a way that leads to life.

00:26:32

It's not the paved path, well lit, well-traveled, known.

00:26:37

It's the ancient path, narrow, forgotten, wild.

00:26:43

Few are willing to walk it,

00:26:45

but those who do find what they've been searching for.

00:26:50

Be one of them.

00:26:54

Walk the way that leads to life

00:26:56

and find faith in a faithless world

00:26:59

happening now in the Crossroads Anywhere App.

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