Obedience Under Fire

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 138
• Hymn — Now Thank We All Our God
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Nicene Creed
• Scripture Reading — Luke 1:39–56
• Hymn — Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
• Sermon
• Hymn — Trust and Obey
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14
• Doxology

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Sermon Title: Obedience Under Fire

Scripture: Daniel 3:1–18

I. The Obedience of Faith Seen Through Reverent Worship

A. Nebuchadnezzar erects a golden image — 90 feet tall, 9 feet wide — on the plain of Dura, commanding all peoples to bow down or be cast into a burning fiery furnace

1. The image likely represents the Babylonian state/empire, echoing the head of gold from Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2
2. The verb "worship" appears 11 times and "serve" 5 times, driving home the central question: whom will you worship?

B. The mechanism of compliance is fear, not persuasion

1. The crowds bow not from theological conviction but from fear of death and loss
2. Satan's tactic in every age is the art of fear, not the art of persuasion

C. The governing principle: you become what you fear

1. What you fear dictates what you love and what you think — cf. Proverbs 1:7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
2. Matthew 10:28 — "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell"
3. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could stand courageously because they had spent their days loving, praying to, and fearing the Lord — as Jesus himself modeled (Isaiah 11:3)
4. Faithfulness in small, daily things prepares us to stand before the Nebuchadnezzars of the world

II. The Obedience of Faith in the Face of Reasonable Worldliness

A. The temptation to accommodate is strong — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego held high positions in Babylon and had much to lose

1. Nebuchadnezzar's implicit appeal: be reasonable — just bend the knee; you don't even have to mean it
2. The classic politician's move: official position vs. personal position — "It's just business, not personal"

B. Common rationalizations Christians use to justify compromise

1. "God knows my heart" — treating public denial of God as inconsequential to private devotion
2. Illustration: a husband who speaks ill of his wife in private cannot credibly claim to love her; God sees how we treat his name in public
3. The notion of a "secret deal" with God — that he winks at our public unfaithfulness — contradicts the covenant he has made with us in the blood of his Son

C. James 4:4 — "Friendship with the world is enmity with God"

1. The cross teaches the converse: friendship with God is enmity with the world
2. Covenant fidelity looks unreasonable to the world, but it is the path to glory and where our salvation rests
3. We are called to stand for the One who has redeemed us, consistently displaying unreasonable faithfulness to a watching world

III. The Obedience of Faith to the Revealed Will of God

A. The "but if not" confession — Daniel 3:17–18

1. "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us… but if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods"
2. Historical parallel: at Dunkirk (1940), a British naval officer cabled London with just the three words but if not, signaling they would fight on but never surrender

B. The distinction between God's hidden will and his revealed will

1. Deuteronomy 29:29 — "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law"
2. Whether God would physically deliver the three men was hidden; that they must not bow to idols was revealed
3. James 2:18 and 2:26 — living faith is evidenced by works of obedience; faith apart from works is dead

C. Two kinds of Christians: only if vs. but if not

1. The only if Christian serves God conditionally — illustrated by Ted Turner, who abandoned faith when God did not answer his prayers for his dying sister
2. Jesus in Gethsemane models the but if not posture — not "only if this cup passes" but "your revealed will be done"
3. Our salvation depends on a but if not Savior; may we be but if not servants of the King