Why Am I Still Struggling? Pain | Trials | Adversity

maybe you were like begging the Lord to get you out of it. Maybe it was a funny situation like that, but maybe you're here this morning and you've been in a terrible situation in your life. You may be in one of those right now, a trial that seems like it's impossible to get out of it. Anybody ever gone through some adversity, right? As a Christ follower, you're gonna go through adversity some hard times and some pain where we desperately need help. I've learned this and walking with the Lord for about 12 years. It's this, instead of praying this prayer, God get me out of this. I've learned to start saying this, God, what can I get out of this? In the middle of a trial, what are you trying to teach me? What can I learn from this? What are you trying to show me? I used to have a difficult time understanding why God would use trials and suffering and pain to refine us as Christ followers. But I want you to hear me this morning. I read this quote. It says, if God were small enough to be understood by you, then he would not be big enough to be worshiped by you. Would you all agree we worship a big God? We serve a really big God. And sometimes as a pastor, as a Christ follower,

I have a hard time wrapping my mind around all of the intricacies of God. But today, you may be in the middle of what seems like a trial, what seems like a fire, if you will. And my advice this morning is that you would take the advice from Usher many years ago and let it burn. All right, let it burn everything as a skating ring day is coming back, okay. Let it burn off everything that cannot go into the next season of your life. And what I've learned is that you remain in that fire replace until you can learn the lesson that God is trying to teach you in it. And I've learned, I can't expedite that process, but I have learned that I can stay in it a lot longer than God intended. If you're taking notes today, I want you to write this down. This is the title of the sermon for today. By all means necessary. By all means necessary. James one, I want to read that again, verse two through five, consider it pure joy. My brothers and sisters, win. Everybody say win. It's a promise when you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Patience is another word there. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,

not lacking anything. Would y'all agree if we want to be mature, if we want to be complete, if we want to persevere, if we want to have joy in all seasons of life, then we have to face trials of many kinds. We have to face trials of many kinds. We must have our faith tested and refined over and over and over. Y'all go with me and over and over. Y'all been in one of these seasons and over and then over and over and over and over. This is the Christian walk. This is what it looks like to live for the Lord. There's trials and there's testing that ultimately will shape who you are. I want to share this powerful story from the book of Daniel today. And my prayer is that you would have a different lens maybe than you've read this through, maybe as a kid or as you heard it growing. This passage builds my faith and it comforts me in my trials as well. Daniel, we're gonna really focus on chapter three but I'm gonna give you a summary of what has happened. So far Daniel and his friends, Hannah and I, Michelle and Azariah, they are taken into captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar. We're gonna call him King Nebby today for short, all right? Y'all can, can you turn the mic down just a little bit, it's a little hot in the back.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, they are chosen to serve in the king's palace due to their wisdom and education. The Bible shows us some interesting things about the Assyrians, we learned about them in the book of Jonah. The Assyrians were really good at peeling people's skin off and beheading them. The Persian Empire was great at crucifying people. The Babylonian Empire, which we're gonna read about today, they were great at brainwashing people. They would force them into their culture and make them do what they did. So the king set out to have these young boys captured and groomed and brainwashed to basically follow And as I read this and studied this this week, the beginning of this jumped off the page. King Nebuchadnezzar did three interesting things to begin the brainwashing of these three Hebrew boys. The first one, if you're taking notes, they were given new names to match the culture, and I'm gonna give some details on this, they were given royal food of the culture, and they were to learn the language and literature of the culture as well. So they were given new names to match the culture. So Daniel, his name originally, it meant God is my judge. He was given a new name, I'll probably butcher these names,

Belt Shezar, and these are wild. And it literally means protect the king. Hananiah means beloved of the Lord, and he is now Shadrach, command of the moon God. This is what his name means now. Michayel, who is like God, now he is Michak. And this is who is like Aku, this is another God. And then the last one, Azariah, the Lord is my help, is now Abindigo, the servant of Nebu, another God. So they were given new names to match the culture they were in, and now they're given this royal food, food from the world, from the king's table. And instead of eating the king's food, lowercase K, by the way, the king's food, they decided they're gonna eat vegetables and drink water. This is where we get the Daniel fast from. I highly encourage you to try this if you've ever tried the Daniel fast. It's amazing, and your body looks like it, never will have looked before, okay, it's amazing. God blesses them because of this, and the third thing is so, this is so interesting to me, and we need to understand this lens before we dive into chapter three, they were to learn the language and the literature of the land, of the culture, of the world that they were in.

The king kept them captive for three years, everybody say three years. So he keeps them captive for three years, he gives them new names, he tries to make them eat what he eats, and then he surrounds them with literature and language of the land. I hope this sounds familiar today in the world we live in. Because there's a lot of parallels. Today, King Nebbe's plan was to capture them and completely change the way they think. This is the enemy's plan, by the way, to identify you with the world, to give you a new name, to feed you what the world has to offer from the king's stable, and to indoctrinate you into the world and thinking the way that the world thinks. We see this in schools today with crazy books being forced upon kids. We see this where people are being re-identified in the world that we live in. This is no new plan. I would say it this way. It sounds like the enemy has no new tricks. Sounds like it's repeating. It's almost like in 2023, the world has taken notes from King Nebbekeneser long ago. But there is good news this morning that the king of kings has the name for you,

its son and daughter of the Most High. The king of kings has invited you to his table to eat. And I love this. The king of king has a great book for you to read as well. We're gonna read from it today. Daniel, they don't do these things, and with God's help, he ends up interpreting the king's dream. In chapter two, he has this crazy dream, and he sends people out to go find someone who can interpret this dream and tell him what it means. Daniel, with the help of God, he interprets the dream. And the dream, it predicts the rise and the fall of empires to come. And it's beautiful. Daniel tells the king, he says, God is setting up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. It will crush all other kingdoms and bring them to an end. And then we pick up in Daniel chapter three, verse one. King Nebbekeneser made an image of gold, 60 cubit high and six cubits wide. And he set it up on the plane of Dura in the province of Babylon. This is 90 feet tall, it's eight stories tall. He gathers everyone around to hear the proclamation. And verse four, then the herald loudly proclaimed, nations and peoples of every language. This is what you are commanded to do. As soon as you hear the sound of what?

Music, would you write that down? As soon as you hear the sound of music, I thought about giving some really good examples this morning, but I didn't want anybody Does anybody else find it interesting that the devil decides to use music to cause people to fall down and worship false idols? For years, if I could be honest with you this morning, music was the very thing that kept me bound to my sin. I was convinced that I could sing and listen to songs about girls and drugs and alcohol and sex and money and fame and ego and I wonder why I couldn't stop giving into those very things. The very things I was thinking about, the things I was speaking with my mouth, the things that I had memorized, y'all listen, I said for years, I can't memorize scripture, but if I hear a beat from a rap song in the 90s, your boy knows every word. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Y'all will hear the sound of music from 30 years ago and you know every word, every pause, you know the dance moves, but we can't memorize scripture. Music has an influence on your life today. I had subwoofers back in high school, I was that guy. And I used to put them in, it was a little side hustle I had, I would install these screens and speakers and all the way up through college, my excuse with music was I just like the beat. I just like the sound of the music I saw a poll recently

and a large portion of people view music lyrics as just another instrument in the song. Meaning that they are saying words that they don't even realize that they are saying and they don't agree with them. It's almost like it's a trance. Words have power, amen? I wanna encourage you to be careful with the words that you are speaking and the words that you are memorizing and the words that you are taking into your hearts. The music industry is literally rocking Christians to sleep as they sing about the very lifestyles they're trying to abstain from. As soon as you hear the music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into the blazing furnace. Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, the flute, the zither, the lyre, the harp and all kinds of music, all the nations and peoples of every language, they fell down and they worshiped the image of gold that King Nebby had set up. The King had made a giant idol right in the middle, this eight story tall idol, 90 foot tall idol of made of gold. And he demands when you hear the music, everybody gets on your face and worship this idol.

This sounds crazy, right? I figured the room would be this quiet this morning. This sounds crazy, right? This is insane to us. Why would you be so silly to worship this big golden statue? But the only difference today is the golden statue now looks like politicians, celebrities, sports teams. Some of us last night were worshiping a golden idol and we didn't realize it. We got way more excited about a game. Hey, oh. And we judge people during worship for lifting their hands. I've seen golden idols in culture today that look a lot like our children and we worship them. But at this point, everyone in the region was so intoxicated by the very culture that they lived in that they got down and they worshiped. This sounds very familiar today. So guys, they come and they tell the King, but there's some Jews who you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I love this, who pay no attention to you. Your majesty, they're polite. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold that you have set up. And so these men were, they were brought before the King and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, is it true Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that you do not serve my gods

or worship the image of gold that I've set up. Now when you hear the sound of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image that I've made very good, but if you do not worship it, then you will be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. And then he says, then what God will be able to rescue you from my hand. I want y'all to remember that because there's a plot twist at the end of this message. What God will be able to rescue you because they literally had been brainwashed up to this point, the rest of the world hear me when the rest of the world is bowing to the world as followers of Jesus we are called to stand strong. Would you write this on following Jesus is counter-cultural. Following Jesus is counter-cultural going against the stream of culture upstream uphill and against the grain of the world that we live in. Have y'all ever floated a river? Y'all have been on a little float trip. We used to go to the Spring River as kids and Hardy, Arkansas. It's beautiful up there. The Spring River is freezing cold. If you've been in it, you know exactly what I'm talking about, but as kids, we used to play this game in middle school, me and my brother and our friends, where we would start downstream and we would play a game on how far you could get upstream. It would be about waist high, the current is strong, and if you fail, you lost points, but the further you could get upstream, the more points you would get. I remember as people would come by and, like, kayaks and canoes, they would laugh at us, right, because we look kind of silly.

We look kind of silly because we're walking upstream, and the same thing is true today in the world that we live in. When you try to live a counter-cultural life, you're probably going to get mocked a little bit. You're probably going to get laughed at a little bit by the world that we live in. You've probably heard this age old saying, "Be in the world," but not what? Of it. Okay, we got the first part. We're in the world. Like, that's easy, but to not be of it. That takes focus. It takes passion. It takes desire to do the thing that God has called us to do. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but culture is serving up a hot platter of whatever can be consumed the fastest. From music to television to media to books to clothing to money, I'm not saying leave the church today and go burn all your CDs because I've been to those camps growing up. I'm not saying do any of that. What I'm saying is re-evaluate what is steering your life. Question. How are you doing when it comes to standing against the current of the culture that we live in? How do you speak? What are you listening to? What are you taking into your eye gates? What are you watching? How are you spending your time and your money? Would you agree this morning that people today are willing to do just about anything to stand out?

Have y'all seen this? Anything to stand out, but to stand out in the world that we live in today means to stand up for what's right. To do the right thing to live according to the word of God. So at the end of the day, it comes down to this question. Who or what are you bowing to? Who or what are you bowing to? I'll say it this way. If the people around you in your life do not know what you stand for, then you may not be standing for the Lord. You may be casually sitting and bowing to other idols calling it good. So what these three men are about to do is 100% counter-cultural and we can learn it. We can learn from it today. Verse 16, it picks up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They replied to him. They said, "King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you." I think someone needs to take note of this this morning. We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. Listen, you don't need to defend God. You can defend the gospel message when people try to water it down, but you don't need to defend God. He can stand for himself. It almost makes me think they remember back from Exodus 14, maybe their ancestors passed the Word along that the Lord will fight for us that we only need to be still. The Word of God, I think it should change us. Our faith should move us. Seeing God move in our life, it should change everything about us. Would you write this down? Our belief should influence our behavior.

Our belief should influence our behavior. Did y'all know that some of the most creative people on the planet are Christians justifying their sin? I'll ask you again. Did y'all know some of the most creative people on the planet are Christians trying to justify their sin? Like, y'all don't be judging me. Y'all been there. Like, I know I shouldn't do this thing, but we end up doing this thing. It's just a few inappropriate jokes. I'll post that -- I'm going to delete it right after. I'm gonna have the that thought but I'm not gonna meditate on it too long I'm gonna cusp, but I'm not really gonna say all the really bad ones, right? I'll overspend But then I'm gonna judge people who overeat Or I'll overeat and then I'm gonna judge people who overspent Well, well these clothes don't reveal too much of my body I'm just gonna be honest with you today. I can't miss the miss the bachelor party Everybody else is going even Jesus ate with sinners. I Know it's the club, but that's where the birthday girl wanted to go Seth, I know I shouldn't date them, but maybe I can win them to the Lord. Let's hear me today young people Missionary dating is not a good idea It's not the way that God designed it either missionary dating is not a good idea I'm gonna say it a third time you that may be the only thing you hear today Missionary dating is not a good idea. Can I have an amen? Well, well Seth it must not be lust because they have most of their clothes on Well, I'm not getting too high. I'm just a little tipsy. It's just one too many drinks Isn't it crazy? That even after grade school that we still try to live lives to impress people that we don't like

What we do things I figured the room would be this tense this morning Listen if we want to make a difference and stand out and stand up in the culture that we live in today We can't do what the world does Our faith should influence what we do and what we save or 17 I love this if we are thrown into the blazing furnace the God that we serve is Able to deliver us from it and he will deliver us from your majesty's hand But even if y'all say even if but even if he does not we want you to know Your majesty that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold that you have set up I think that this is noteworthy Y'all probably heard a message called even if faith right that even if God doesn't do what you thought he would do Even if it doesn't work out how you thought but this is strong faith. I Believe that God Will heal me this is what it sounds like I believe that God's going to heal and fill in the blank with whoever it may be But even if he does not are y'all tracking with me this morning, but even if he does not I'm not bowing to culture I'm not giving in to my own desires. I believe hear me. This is this is man. I hear this all the time I believe that God is gonna heal my marriage But even if he does not listen do not turn your back on him. I Believe that God is gonna give us kids, but even if he does not don't turn your back on them I believe that I'm not gonna be single the rest of my life. Hey But even if I am I'm gonna worship you. I'm gonna give you glory I'm not gonna bow to the things of this world. God is good even when our circumstance doesn't seem good and Even when it doesn't pan out the way that I think that it should God is still good I've learned in my life that faith is built before the fire and then the fire refines it faith is built before the fire and Then the fire Refines it listen faith comes by hearing the word of God Romans 10 17 faith is tested by trials Raise your hand if you ever had a trial that tested you some of y'all sit next to the very trial that tested you, okay? Like I saw way too many nudges. Y'all need to chill out. All right Faith is tested by trials James 1 3, but hear this on the other side of the fire

every single time your faith is stronger Why is it stronger? Because you got refined in the fire burnt off everything that couldn't go to the next season with you God is not trying to destroy you with the fire He's trying to develop you, but when you are dead set on it has to be my way or the highway You'll stay in the fire for a lot longer than than planned and desired Following Jesus will bring trials Jesus promised us that that we will have pain and suffering and opposition and trials And James 1 at the beginning of the service we read when you face trials of many kinds I'm like, why did James have to throw that in there? He just couldn't say when you face trials. He's that brother said many kinds of trials Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance this word perseverance can be Also said as patience perseverance. These are interchangeable patience in the Greek is this word? Tell your neighbor to say, you need some hoopomone, all right? You need some patience. Everybody say, I need patience. I need some patience. And this is really cool, this definition, it's not passive waiting. It's active endurance. So perseverance and patience, this is not passively waiting. This is an active endurance. Do we have any marathon runners in here? My hand is down, OK? This is the same type of endurance that is talked about. It is an active endurance. And it means that you should stay under the hand of God. Do y'all know what the opposite of hoopomone is? It's called impatience. Impatience.

And impatience is when you decide, I don't want to stay under the hand of God. I want to be underneath the hand of myself. And it's when you can step out from God's covering, and you think you have your own way and your own plan, and I'm telling you, it's not the best approach of life. And so you step away from this active endurance, and you end up staying in the fire longer. It says in verse 19, the Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Chadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and his attitude towards them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual. And he commanded some of the strongest soldiers in the army to tie up Chadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men wearing their robes, trousers, turbines, and other clothes were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. So you see all this flammable material that's on them? The king's command was so urgent that the furnace-- so it was so hot that the flames killed the soldiers who took up Chadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men firmly tied. They fell into the blazing furnace. Verse 24, this is a plot twist. It says, "Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaps to his feet. And in amazement, he asked his advisors, weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?" They replied, "Certainly your majesty." He said, "Look, I see four men walking around in the fire."

If you've got a Bible or some notes, would you make note of this? Unbound and unharmed. Unbound and unharmed. And the fourth looks like a son of the gods. And then they went in, bound up and beat up. And they came out, unbound and unharmed. Is this anybody's testimony? You went in, bound up and beat up. And you came out, unbound and unharmed. The only thing that burned in the fire was the very thing that bound to them. The only thing that burned in the fire was the rope that bound to them. And so they come out of the fire. I believe some of you today, I want to say this before we continue, I believe some of you in this room today, for the first time in your life, or maybe you're reminded of this story and you're going to have a fresh perspective. I believe that you are walking out of the furnace today, like the trial ends today. Because you're going to stop saying, God, would you get me out of this? And you're going to start praying, God, would you show me what I need to get out of this? Did you know no perspectives, everything? And I've learned, like I had a lot of remedial math classes growing up. I tell people all the time, when I got to college,

I didn't have all the fancy math. It was just called math, math, math, math, and math. It's because I took the same one over and over and over again. This is what it looks like when we have remedial faith. A lesson that happened six years ago was supposed to refine your faith. And it was supposed to shape you into who God wanted you to be. But we forget about it. And so six years later, we're walking through the same fiery furnace again to be taught the lesson we forgot. I believe God wants to remind some people today that what he burned off of you, the thing that bounds you up in the fire, it is your decision if you want to pick it up again and be bound by it. Your trial is not supposed to kill you. It's supposed to refine you. Your faith is being refined, your heart is being refined. Your thinking is being refined. Your life is being refined. But you will walk out unharmed and unbound if you want to. It's a choice. It's a choice. And here's the beautiful thing is when we are patient, we stay under the hand of God. we get out from underneath the hand of God. We think we have our own way, but when we are patient and we have fresh perspective, and we can say, God, what do you wanna do inside of me through this trial? Perspective is everything.

He will shift your thinking this morning if you let him. He will re-teach you a lesson. If you're in remedial faith or 101, whatever it may be, he wants to show you that thing again to that love, that there were three men in the fire, by the way, that there were three men in the fire, and it reminds me that faith and standing for God is so much easier when you're not standing by yourself. What a great opportunity to plug life groups. We do life groups all throughout the year. We have served teams going all throughout the year. There are ways to make a difference in the community all throughout the year, why? Because standing with other people will always be easier than standing by yourself. There's three people standing in the fire, and it's beautiful. The king notices the very man that said, "What kind of God can save you?" The king notices that there's a fourth man standing in the fire. Oh, and by the way, he looks like the son of the God. Unbound and unharmed. I don't wanna blow past this detail. Y'all know when I read the Bible, I like to just really think about things. Can we just go there for a minute? Can you close your eyes? This isn't the ultra cold. Just close your eyes.

You just got thrown into a blazing furnace with all of your besties. And you don't get burned. You don't smell like smoke. Your clothes aren't burning. The rope has just fallen off of your wrist, and you look to your left, and you see the son of God, Jesus standing with you, and he is guiding you out of the firey furnace. Open your eyes, and then you hear King Nebbeh hollering. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Servants of the Most High God come out and come here. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they come out of the fire, and it says that everyone crowded around them, and they saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor a hair was singed on their head. Their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. And the Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants. They trusted in him. They defiled the king's commands, and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any God except their own." Listen, the world will take notice when you do these three things. The world will take notice when you do these three things.

They trusted in God. They did not follow the world's commands, and they were willing to give up their own lives rather than bowing to the world. It says, "Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that they will be cut into pieces." This guy was crazy. I don't recommend this, all right? "They will be cut into pieces, and their houses will be turned into piles of rubble for no other God can save in this way." King Nebuchadnezzar is now praising God and acknowledging the grace that saved these men. Would you write down this last thing, our faith should impact others? Our faith should impact others. It should make a difference in the world. I want to end with a story before we pray. Maybe you've heard the story of Blondene, the tightrope walker. In the 1800s, he was the first one to walk across the Niagara Falls. This was before social media. This would have went viral, okay? All these people gathered around. They're chanting and clapping and cheering. He walks across Niagara Falls on the tightrope. Then he realizes that was too easy, and then he blindfolds himself. He walks back, and then he gets on some stilts, which stilts just on the ground are really difficult to walk on. He walks across the tightrope, and then he goes, and then he sets up a grill and cooks a egg right in the middle of the tightrope. You can look this up as crazy.

Then he gets to the other side, he grabs a wheelbarrow. He throws in a lot of cement blocks, about 200 pounds of cement blocks, and he goes out, and he goes all the way across the rope, and he comes back, and everybody's cheering, and they're yelling, And he turns to a man as he's dumping out the concrete blocks. And he finds this guy in the audience, and this poor guy was used as an illustration. And he says, "Hey, do you think I could put a person in here?" They go across the same rope, and the guy's like, "You're the greatest! You can do it!" And he says, "Get in the wheelbarrow." And as you can imagine, the guy's like, "No, why?" He says, "Get in the wheelbarrow!" The guy says, "No!" And it's interesting, the way that the story pans out is that the manager of Blondine ends up hopping in the wheelbarrow. And they go across, they do a few more stunts, and the reason he trusted him is because he spent time with him. And he knew that he's proven himself time and time again. And I have a simple challenge for you this morning, it's to get in the wheelbarrow. To get in the game. Don't be like everybody else cheering from the sidelines, cheering on people who are serving, cheering on. People getting into life groups, cheering on people who are giving and supporting the church, cheering on. Yay! Thank you, Jesus! You died for me, but I'm not doing nothing else other than receiving salvation. Yeah! Thank you, Jesus! You are so good, but if you ask me to do anything, the answer is no. Oh, yeah! Thank you, Jesus! We love you! I'm not serving in the nursery. Hey, yo! I'm not going to give my time, but as manager, he hops in the wheelbarrow because he trusted him and he had spent time with him. I want to encourage every person in here today to take a step, to not give in to the things of this world and to bow to culture, but to only bow to the king of kings, the enemy. Let me tell you, he comes to still kill and destroy, and Jesus has come to give you life and life to the full. If you would close your eyes, I want to pray.