God Is With You in the Fire | En Fuego | Pastor Mike Breaux

Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching. Every week we release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Point YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Now, enjoy this Bible teaching. All right. Man, so grateful for families like that. And I just want to add my encouragement as well. We got half the movies coming up in just two weeks. So be thinking about moving the Saturday night, if you can, to free up spot for brand new people that might show up. You know, one of the things I love about Lake Point is y'all just kind of like do what we ask you to do. It's kind of crazy. And I'm so grateful for you for that. I mean, the way you all serve, the way you all are generous, the way you're all compassionate toward people

in the community and around the world, it's pretty remarkable. And I just love y'all and so grateful for you. And it's been a blast for me getting to hang out with you for four weeks in a row. It's been really fun for me, but I got some great news for you. Pastor Josh will be back next week and he's going to wrap up our En Fuego series. And I'm not sure exactly what he's going to do with it, but I know he will be on fire. He will be En Fuego when he comes back. I've been praying that God would actually take what we've been learning together and form something like deep and lasting in us. This has been a fire-based series where we spent a couple of weeks talking about that wildfire of anger, the combustible kind and the smoldering kind that does equal damage inside of us if we hang on to it. And again, I just been praying that you have been applying all that we've been learning, all those scriptures we've seen, because if we are serious about becoming God's best version of us, and I think that we are, then unresolved anger just has no place in our life. It just has to go. Well, last weekend we unpacked an incredible story about this prophet dude named Elijah

and his showdown with the prophets of a phony God named Baal. And the story is really all about the one true living God who is an all-consuming fire and his love burns white hot for every single one of us. And we talked about how God wants to move you and me from being a mere consumer to being consumed by him, to lay our lives on the altar every day, to surrender to his love and his wisdom and his leadership, and let God ignite passion and purpose in our lives to light us on fire so that people can watch us burn with the goodness of God. And today we're talking about when the heat gets turned up in our life, when we have to go through a fire that we didn't necessarily see coming and how God uses all of it to refine our character. We're gonna dive into another crazy fire story from the Old Testament today. It's in Daniel chapter three, but I wanna give you some key verses that I think the Holy Spirit wants to stick in our hearts this weekend. There's a little letter tucked in the back of the New Testament that one of Jesus' closest followers, a guy named Peter, wrote to a bunch of brand new believers. And he talks about how through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we have all been given a living hope. And then he says these words.

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. Let me read that again. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead. He's saying, hang on to that living hope. It's not just wishful thinking kind of hope. It's this wonderful, indescribable joy that is waiting for you. And that joy is an absolute promise from the God who never breaks his promise. So hang on to all that, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. Now notice he doesn't say we might go through a few trials in life. He uses the words must and many. And I think Peter is echoing the words he heard Jesus say personally when Jesus said, in this world, you will have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world. I mean, we live in a broken world. Hard things happen to every one of us, but because of Jesus Christ in the big picture of eternity, the hard times that come, as Peter says, they're just really a little while. Then he goes on. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold, though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.

So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. You know, fire purifies gold by separating what's valuable from what's not. You might know that raw gold contains. A whole bunch of crud, a lot of dirt, rocks, other lesser minerals and metals. So it gets fired in a furnace at 1,900 degrees or the equivalent of an August day in Texas. The gold melts into liquid form and impurities called the dross either burns off or they rise to the surface. Then the refiner can carefully skim the crud off the top and what remains is more pure, more valuable gold. And then guess what happens? They do it again. They heat up the furnace, they run it through again, they skim off the dross. And then guess what happens next? They do it again over and over and each round increases the purity and the process is finally complete when the refiner can actually see their reflection in the molten gold. And I don't have to tell y'all but when the heat gets turned up in our lives, it reveals what's really there. It has a way of showing, as we said in week one, what lies beneath.

And man, it's been so true in my life. Heat and pressure have exposed hidden impurities in my life like anger and pride and fear and insecurity and lust and envy and selfishness. All the dross, so to speak, rises to the top so that it can be removed. And God's goal throughout the entire process is that the reflection of Jesus Christ can be seen clearly in you and me. Now, like last week, we're gonna hang in a fire story from the Old Testament. It's a familiar story to many of you. And for some of you, this might be brand new. It's found in the first few chapters of the book of Daniel. And we're gonna meet these three guys who have the heat turned up in their lives and they have to go through the fire, like literally. So let me just give you some historical background in this story. In 605 BC, the year I graduated from high school, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon overwhelms Jerusalem and he takes a bunch of their very best teenage guys captive and he enrolls them along with the very best of the Babylonian cities in the king's leadership academy. Now, these Jewish guys were given brand new names and brand new identities. They were forced to learn a new culture, a new language. And they're introduced to a whole bunch of new so-called gods. And four of the most notable was a guy named Daniel

and his three buddies, Hananiah, renamed Shadrach, Mishael, renamed Meshach, Azariah renamed Abednego. If you grew up watching Veggie Tales, then you know they renamed them Rakshak and Beni. And their story is so rich. But the thing that jumps out to me is even though Rakshak and Beni had been taken captive by a completely godless and pagan nation, they refused to allow their hearts to be taken captive. They refused to buy into the cultural standards that would compromise their devotion to the one true God. And even though these guys are far away from home and even though they're far from having their dream jobs, they just work hard, they treat other people with kindness and respect, they serve with integrity. They don't gripe about being there. They just kind of bloom with their planet. And as a result, their excellent lives set them apart from all the others. And all of them, Daniel, Rakshak, and Beni are elevated to high positions in the kingdom and they make a huge difference right in the middle of Babylon. Now, King Nebuchadnezzar was something else. The only thing that extended beyond the borders of his vast kingdom was his immense ego. If you wanna see a lesson in humility and how God can humble the proud, you ought to read chapter four of the book of Daniel. And I guarantee you, it's one of those lessons

you wanna learn from reading the book and not have to experience it in your own life. But look how chapter three begins. King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue 90 feet tall, that's like a nine story building, nine feet wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. And Nebuchadnezzar was like hoping to use this huge gold statue to solidify his power by centralizing all the people's worship of him. So he sends out a decree that says, when you hear the band start to play, everybody, no matter who you are, everybody is to stop what you're doing during the day and bow down and worship this image. And he attached this warning that said, anyone who refuses to do so will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. Talk about an ego trip, bow down to my image or things are gonna get heated up real quick. Verse seven, so at the sound of the musical instruments, all the people, whatever their race or nation or language, bowed to the ground and worshiped the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Now, most people in Babylonian culture were polytheists, which means like the worship of many gods. I mean, here a god, there a god, everywhere a god, god, it didn't, so no big deal. There were gods everywhere. So to stop and bow the knee to yet another god, especially under the threat of capital punishment, not really a big deal.

However, it was a big deal to some who worshiped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Yahweh, Elohim, the great I Am, the Lord of all creation, the one true living God, it was a big deal to them. I heard somebody say one time, it is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society. We see quite a few years have passed since Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have showed up as promising high school students from Judah. These guys are men now, grown men who held high positions in Babylon. These are guys who by now would have had ample time to get well-adjusted to their profoundly sick society. They would have had years to choose to just conform and just fit in, just go with the flow, years to fade in their relationship with God, years to feel like their old God was no longer relevant to the new lives that they had now led in their new culture. But that wasn't the case. Verse eight, some of the astrologer's officials came to the king and informed on the Jews. They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, long live the king. You issued a decree requiring all the people to bow down and worship the gold statue when they hear the sound of the musical instruments. And just to remind you, that decree also states that those who refuse to obey must be thrown into a blazing furnace. Now there are some Jews, namely Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, whom you have put in charge of the province of Babylon. They have defied your majesty by refusing to serve your gods or to worship the gold statue that you have set up. Now I want you to notice something. These guys were some officials tattling on some of the Jews. This was not like a class action suit against a whole group of people, because I'm guessing there were other Jews, including Daniel, who didn't bow down either, but they weren't turned in. So what's really going on here?

Did you catch the phrase, but there are some Jews, namely Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, whom you have put in charge of the province of Babylon. What's going on here? They don't care about the statue. I mean, what's another God? They just want these three guys out of the way so they could get their jobs. Because in chapter one, all these guys were in this leadership academy together, and Daniel and these three guys stood out from among the rest of all the guys, and as a result, they all got promoted to high positions along with Daniel, and they were foreigners for crying out loud. This was professional jealousy. And I just bet that some of you right now on the receiving end of some kind of jealousy and envy, somebody doesn't like you right now because you got the promotion, or you got the raise, or you made the team, or you made the squad, or you were named an all-star and they were not, or maybe you're the professor's favorite, or maybe you got a scholarship for next year, or maybe you seem to do everything so effortlessly, and you got a great girlfriend, you got a great boyfriend, or your family gets to go on cool vacations, or you got a nice car, a nice house, your kids are doing awesome, and right now somebody's looking at you through the green-eyed monster of envy, just hoping, wishing that something would happen to take you down and raise them up. And so they may make comments behind your back. They may post negative things. They may try to sabotage your efforts and poison your reputation, or they even try to turn your friends, your co-workers, even your family against you. Do you know why the religious leaders handed Jesus over to the Romans to be crucified? You know what Scripture says? It was for envy that they delivered him up. I've taught this definition of envy here before a few times, actually, but I want to repeat it again because I think it's a good definition. Envy is resenting God's goodness in other people's lives while ignoring His goodness

in mine. Envy is resenting God's goodness in other people's lives while ignoring His goodness in mine. See, envy is this sinister thing that can just subtly creep into your spirit, and you know, even as I'm talking right now, if you know there's a little bit of that lurking in your heart right now, you've got to let God surgically remove that before that cancer spreads and starts destroying you and a whole bunch of other people. And if it's happening to you right now, I hope that you'll find some courage in the rest of this story. So I want you to picture in your minds the plains of Dura. I want you to picture all of that. all the officials, all the people waiting for their cue. And when the band starts to play, the horizon goes flat. Everybody bowing down to Nebuchadnezzar's image of gold. And just imagine the silhouette of that for a moment. Three guys standing up among the many who are bowing down. And all three were standing at the risk of their very own lives. I've always loved this line from Elizabeth Kugler Ross which says, people are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within. And these three guys had light from within because they walked daily with the living God. And there was no way they were gonna be affected by the darkness of their culture. Now, there's a couple of things I wanna point out real quick.

When I read through the story again, I was wondering like, where's Daniel? And it doesn't say, I mean, he's probably just serving at his post. In fact, later on, the same kind of jealous plot would get him thrown in with a bunch of hungry lions. That's another story for another day, but he's not included in this story. And I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I think that makes this story even cooler than it actually is. Because in the first two chapters of Daniel, it is really clear that when it comes to these four young Jewish guys, like Daniel was the man. Daniel was their leader. He was their spokesperson. He was their brave one. Daniel was their strong one. And here these three guys are now without their leader, just standing up for God by themselves. And you know what? It is great to have strong friendships. All of us need those things. We teach around here all the time and believe to our core, it's essential for all of us to be in healthy community and surround ourselves with godly relationships because we're just better together, right? However, we will never know and experience

the full power of God in our lives if all of our courage is wrapped up in another imperfect human being. Because there will be times when you will be face-to-face with a scary situation, some kind of daunting task or some kind of strong temptation, and your quote-unquote strong one is nowhere to be found. And what we often do in those moments of panic, we go, where are they? I can't believe that my best friend, I can't believe that my parent, I can't believe that my spouse, my pastor, my mentor, I can't believe my sponsor isn't picking up the phone right now. Man, if I ever needed them, I need them right now. I believe God uses those moments in our lives so that you and I could depend upon him and he can be revealed as our true strong one. Proverbs 18, 10 says this, the name of the Lord is a strong fortress. The godly run to him and are safe. Now, if you're in a situation right now where you're alone, you're afraid, you're looking around for your strong one and they are nowhere to be found, or maybe they weren't there for you the way you thought they would be, or maybe they moved away, or maybe they recently passed away,

or maybe they didn't turn out to be as strong as you thought they were, or maybe they relapsed, or maybe they bailed out on you, or maybe they disappointed you, it's up to you now to lean into God, the one who is always available. He's always available and he never bails out. He is the God of unfailing love. He is your unshakable fortress. He is your true strong one. So here are these three guys, Rakshak and Benny, standing up with their leader and they are nowhere to be found. And as they stand up, they stand out and they get in deep, deep trouble. Check it out, verse 13, that Nebuchadnezzar flies into a rage and orders Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be brought before him. And when they're brought in, Nebuchadnezzar says to them, is it true? Tell me this is not true. Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you refuse to serve my gods or to worship the gold statue I've set up? I'll give you one more chance. Here's the king thinking, maybe they didn't hear the announcement.

Maybe they were in a meeting and didn't get the memo that I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt. Because you know what? These three guys, they're three of my very best. These are some of the most valuable members of my entire administration. So I wanna give them another shot. He says, if you bow down and worship the statue I have made, when you hear the sound of the musical instruments, all will be well. We'll forget all about this. However, if you refuse, you will be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. And then he flexes and asks this question, what God will be able to rescue you from my power then? And they reply, Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we don't need to defend ourselves before you. If we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, your majesty. But even if he doesn't, your majesty can be sure that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up. I love how these guys stand before the king with total confidence. And did you notice how they respectfully address him as your majesty? They're saying, listen, we're not trying to be difficult here.

We're not trying to be rebellious. Your majesty, you know our character. You know how well we've served you. You know how hard we work, but we just can't do this because we drew a line in our heart long before we landed here in Babylon that we were gonna consistently and authentically serve our God. And so the God whom we serve, he is able to save us. My daughter, Jodi, gave me this great exercise a few years ago where you write down, if blank, then blank. If blank happens, then what? If the biopsy is positive, then all hope is gone. If I lose this job, then our family will not survive. If he walks out the door, then my life is over. Listen to me, blank is gonna happen. Fire is gonna come. The heat will get turned up in some way in your life. If blank is a given, that's why you gotta fill in the second blank ahead of time. With if blank, then God. If blank happens, well, then God. And that's the way these guys lived. If blank happens, whether we're fired or fried, no matter what fills in that first blank, the second blank is already filled in. If blank, then God. And that's their answer to the king's question. What God will be able to save you then?

The God of our blank. The God whom we serve, he is able. Our God has the power. In case you've forgotten, your majesty, he gave you your kingdom. Our God can read minds. Our God can reveal secrets. Our God controls the tides. Our God stores thunder in places no one's ever been to. Our God knows every star, every grain of sand, every hair on your head. And he's not just like 90 feet tall like your statue. Our God can wade into the deepest ocean and still be only ankle deep. He could play marbles with the planets if he wanted to. Our God is huge. He is supreme. He is sovereign. He is the giver of all good gifts. He's the anchor of our soul. He's our hope. He's the one who put the capacity, the love and laugh and cry and feel in our hearts. Our God has the power to forgive in ways we can only hope to learn. Our God alone can rescue. He alone can save. He alone can lift us from the grave. Oh yeah, the God whom we serve, that God, the God we love, the God we trust, the God we know,

the God of our blank, he is able to save us. And did you catch that next phrase? This is so cool to me. The next phrase is, but even if he doesn't. But even if he doesn't. Man, that's packed with a lot of faith, isn't it? They're saying, we know he sees the big picture and we trust not only his power, we also trust his heart. We believe that he can do this. But even if he chooses not to, we're gonna trust his unfailing love. I just got back from our annual lake trip with 34 of our family. We had so much fun. Kids, we had 19 kids, 15 adults, kids everywhere, so many great memories. I actually chipped my front tooth on a Klondike bar and strained my hamstring trying to ski. I am so stinking old, I'm just saying. It's just, I mean, I look like Lloyd on Dumb and Dumber with my front tooth. But I'm so blessed with the family that we have. We had such an amazing time on the lake and sitting on that dock, I couldn't help but think about the story that Stu Weber tells about a family who was also vacationing at a lake home. And a four-year-old who couldn't swim very well fell off the edge of the dock and the dad was walking the other direction.

He hears a splash, turns around, his son is gone. So he runs down the dock and he dives in the water. It's kind of a murky lake and he goes down looking for his son, can't find him, comes back up, goes back down, can't find him. And finally he finds this little boy, this little four-year-old wrapped around the pier of the dock. So he grabs him, undoes his fingers, they burst through the water gasping for air and he goes, what were you doing down there? I was just waiting for you, dad. Just waiting for you. And that's the way these guys felt. They said, you know, our father will show up. He will show up. We don't know how. We don't know when. But he always does. And we're just gonna trust that. Well, verse 19. King Nebuchadnezzar was so furious, so furious at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face became distorted with rage. He commanded the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual, kind of like the furnace that refines gold. Then he ordered some of the strongest men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace.

So they tied them up and threw them into the furnace, fully clothed. And because the king in his anger had demanded such a hot fire in the furnace, the flames leaped out and killed the soldiers as they threw the three men in. So Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, securely tied, fell down into the roaring flames. My wife went through a Beth Moore study of Daniel a few years ago, and she reminded me how talking about this particular story, Beth says, sometimes God delivers us from the fire. And sometimes God delivers us through the fire. And sometimes he delivers us by the fire, straight into his arms. Now that first scenario from the fire, that sounds the best of all three options, right? Because the first thing we do when things start to heat up is we pray that the fire would not touch us, that it would just go around us, it would just pass over us. And you know what, it's right to pray those kinds of prayers. I pray those kinds of prayers with people in the lobby every single week. It's not a lack of courage to pray for healing, to pray for protection, to pray for miracles, because sometimes God delivers us from the fire. And sometimes he delivers us through the fire. And that's what he's done and is doing for so many of us right now.

Remember our key verses that told us that fires that we go through, they refine our faith, they make us come out shining like gold. And you know what, I've learned personally that as you go through that kind of fire, it can just burn the fake out of you. It can make your faith and your character genuine. And gang, that is priceless when that happens. So sometimes he delivers us from the fire, other times he delivers us through the fire, and sometimes he delivers us by the fire, straight into his arms. He did that for a friend of ours. She was in a horrific wreck that sent three people to the ICU and six people to heaven. They say she died on impact. She was in a recovery program that we've worked with. She was experiencing brand new life, just loving God, just doing so great. She'd been recently baptized. She was so alive, but she'd had a really, really tough life. She'd been trafficked since she was a kid. She wrestled with years with drug addiction. She lost a daughter, but that night she was driving. And she looked up and she saw headlights and she heard a boom. And the next thing she knew, wow, this place is amazing. Oh, there's Jesus. There's my daughter.

And when that happens, our faith is made complete when we stand before our Redeemer. So sometimes he delivers us from the fire, sometimes it's through the fire, and sometimes by the fire, straight into his arms. And I think that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thinking this was either gonna be the first scenario or the last one. I think they probably thought that either God would soon intervene and they would not be thrown into that fire, or they're just going home to meet their maker. I don't think it ever crossed their minds that they could actually make it through the fire. Verse 24, but suddenly, as he was watching, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisors, didn't we tie up three men and throw them in the furnace? Yes, they said, we did indeed, your majesty. Well, look, I see four men, like unbound, walking around in the fire. They aren't even hurt by the flames. And the fourth looks like a divine being. Now, biblical scholars have different opinions about who that fourth man in the fire was. We actually sang about him a little bit earlier today. Now it could have been an angel. God could have done that, that'd have been cool. But I believe that the way that this verse is translated in many texts, the son of deity,

or the son of God, suggests that this was what scholars call a Christophany, which is the physical presence of Jesus himself, right there in the fire with them was the living God, the great I am, Emmanuel. He was their fourth man in the fire. And I know that some of y'all are going through some very painful things right now, hard stuff. I mean, very intense heat in your life right now. Just know he's in the. fire with you, you are not alone in this fire. Listen to your father say this to you. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up. The flames will not consume you, for I am the Lord your God, and I will be with you. And did you notice that God said, when you go, not if you go, because we are all gonna walk through some fires, we're all gonna be faced with some pretty scary things in this life, but if blank, then God, then God, he is always with us. Nothing can separate us from his unfailing love, not death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor fears for today, or worries about tomorrow, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from his love. Plus he has prepared a better place, a perfect place, a fire-free eternal place.

And Rakshak and Abednego had supreme confidence in that truth. Verse 26, then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace and shouted, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out, come here. So Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego stepped out of the fire. What? The princes, prefects, governors, advisors crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn't even smell of smoke. Now I love a couple of things in there. Remember how they had been tied up and thrown into the fire? And then the king saw that they were now walking around like unbound, their bodies had not been harmed, their robes had not been scorched, not even the hairs on their head had been singed. The only things that got burned up were the ropes that held them back. And that's such a cool picture for so many of us because I believe there are times that God will allow you and me to go through a fire just to set us free. Maybe there was some kind of bondage to a habit or an addiction that had us all tied up for so many years, right? And maybe the fire that we went through

was even a consequence of our own bad decisions, but how many of us have been through a fire that forced us to finally humble ourselves and surrender to God. And as a result, those things that used to bind us, they're burned away and we are finally free. The other thing I love is what it said in verse 27, that there was no smell of fire on them. The Amplified Bible puts it like this, nor had even the smell of smoke clung to them. This is pretty amazing. I mean, I can roast marshmallows on a campfire. I can have fajitas at a Mexican restaurant. I can smell like smoke for a month, right? Anybody else? It'll just cling to me. But on the other side of this fire, even the smell of smoke had not clung to them. You know, some people who have been through fire in their life, gone through some tough stuff, they go through their life pretty angry and pretty bitter. And they're always playing the victim card. But there are others who have gone through a fire and man, you'd never know it because they don't go around smelling like smoke. I think of a friend right now whose husband had an affair several years ago and it was an intense fire in her life. I mean, lots and lots of pain. It did not result in a restoration of their marriage,

but God walked with her through that fire. And these days you would never know it. She doesn't even smell like smoke. I think of a buddy of mine who had some horrific things happen to him that led him to make some really bad decisions on his own. And those decisions created like a bonfire in his life. He burned a lot of bridges, burned a lot of people. And even though he built that fire himself, God met him in that fire and walked him through it and rescued him from his addictions and his past. And to meet him now, you would never know any of that because he didn't walk around smelling like smoke. I think of another young friend of mine who was neck deep in an eating disorder. And God walked with her through that fire and burned those ropes that had her so bound up. And you would never ever know that she was ever insecure, that she was ever unhealthy. She didn't even smell like smoke. Gang, only God can bring us through a fire and write a brand new story with our lives. And he wants to meet you right in the middle. middle of that fire and refine you in ways that only he can. He's done that with my good friend, Scott. Scott Sean White is his name. He's a Lake Point guy who is a singer, songwriter. He's written songs for artists like Cody Johnson and others. He travels all over the country

sharing his songs and his story. And you can find his music on all the platforms. He is such, such a great dude. One song he wrote has a chorus that says, God is good on the good days, even better on the bad days. And this is a guy who has been through the fire. He doesn't even smell like smoke. Very abusive childhood, went through an unplanned pregnancy, overwhelming responsibility in his life, suicidal thoughts, you name it. He sat down recently with our team and he shared his story and he shared that song that he wrote about God. It was a song that was born in the fire. Check this out. ♪ Daddy drank a fifth every morning just to stop shaking ♪ ♪ God is good, beat my mama half to death while she was pregnant ♪ ♪ God is good. ♪ The dad in this song was my real dad and my mom left my birth dad right after I was born. It was, you know, all the craziness that went on growing up, really violent, crazy. I had a brother named Joey who had Down syndrome. He passed away in 2016. I was his primary caregiver from age 18 for most of my adult life. When I became the primary caregiver for my mom and for Joey, stress was something I wasn't expecting. And I was never a person to think about a suicide ever, but I was so stressed out about life at that point that I, for just a second, I thought about running my truck

into the concrete bridge and that freaked me out. And that's when I realized, you know, I knew Jesus for that. I knew about Him. We went to church a little bit growing up, but I hadn't surrendered my life to Him. I had that moment where I said, hey, I'm not gonna make it if I don't make it. I'm not gonna make it if I don't make it. I'm not gonna make it if I don't turn everything over to You. I know all the statistics say that I'm either supposed to be dead or in prison or really messed up. And as I look back on it, He has always redeemed all the craziness, refined me through the fire. God is good on the good days, even better on the bad days. Yeah, my God is good, always. I'm just grateful for that refinement and the fires. It made me aware of my desperate need for Jesus, and it made me desperately seek Him. He's redeemed all of it for me. And even when I go through stuff now, I have this mountain of evidence of 58 years of life that says He's never failed me. He just made me in such a way that I responded to the events in a healthy way. That wasn't me being wise or something. That was the Lord. You know, I've been married for 35 years. I just have a completely different life

than what I grew up in. That's why I write songs like this, and that's why I tell my story. If you went through similar stuff, that you're not alone. And if you're going through something similar, I can be at least one example in that moment of somebody that survived it, by the grace of God, and only by the grace of God. Yeah, my God is good, always. My name is Scott Sean White, and this is how Jesus changed my life. God is good on the good days, even better on the bad days. Yeah, my God is good, always. He is with you through the fire, and refines our character in the process. I think Josh said just a couple of weeks ago, your pain can become your platform, just like Scott. So maybe just a few honest questions we all need to ask ourselves today. Like maybe ask, are there any other things besides God that I am bowing down to these days? Any kind of compromise going on in my life? Maybe today. Today, you could ask, are there some ropes that really have me bound? What impurities in here need to be burned away? From what do I need to be rescued? And if you happen to be going through a fire right now, listen, you're not being punished. You're being purified.

And remember, like Peter said, it's just a little while. And during that little while, there's someone in that fire with you, and his name is Jesus. And whether it's from the fire, through the fire, or by the fire into his arms, he will deliver you. Father, thank you for that promise. I thank you that even Nebuchadnezzar realized your power when he said, oh, the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he is the one true God. I thank you that you prove yourself over and over. Like Scott said, there's a mountain of evidence in our lives that you have walked with us through so much hard stuff in our life. So grateful for that. Jesus, thank you for being Emmanuel, which means God with us. So grateful that you are with us every day. Keep us aware of your presence. And God, as we kind of come to the close, we just say, whatever's in us, whatever lies beneath, we just give you permission to go to work on that and refine us and mold us into the character of Jesus. And I pray all this in his name, amen.