Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20240114 - Living with Total Commitment - Daniel 3:19-25 & 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Transcript

#20240114 - Living with Total Commitment - Daniel 3:19-25 & 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to the Study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
• 0:08
  Taylor recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co To learn
• 0:12
  more about the many resources available through Abounding
• 0:15
  Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services, visit us
• 0:19
  online at Calvary, Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
• 0:24
  Church app. Now here's Pastor Ed to take us
• 0:27
  into our study. Amen.
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  Take your Bibles. Open them, would you?
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  To Daniel, Chapter 3. That's where we'll start.
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  Daniel chapter 3 will end up eventually in Second Corinthians
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  chapter 12. And I've entitled our Bible
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  study Living with total commitment.
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  And here we are at the beginning of a new year.
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  And I know it's just a calendar turn.
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  It's just another page. But we're 14 days into the new
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  year and it's like we get to enter into new land.
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  It reminded me of Joshua. It's a passage of scripture I
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  often like to teach through in the new year.
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  I won't be this year, but I love this passage because he tells
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  the children of Israel as they're heading into the
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  Promised Land. As he takes over the leadership
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  from Moses, he tells them that they need to pay attention to
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  the ark, and they and he says for you have not passed this way
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  before. And that's true for us in any
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  new year, in any new day for that matter.
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  But any new day, any new week, month, year, we haven't passed
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  this way before. God is leading us into a new
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  land, into new ground, into new territory and we just haven't
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  been here before. It means we can look forward
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  with great anticipation. We can look forward knowing that
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  they're, they're going to be rough patches ahead.
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  But we haven't been this way before.
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  There's a newness before us. God is working out his will for
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  our lives. Or or you could say that we're
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  walking into the divine destiny that God has for us, growing in
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  grace day by day. And I was reminded of Jesus
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  telling all seven churches in Revelation.
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  Remember what he said. He says he who has ears.
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  Let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
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  And I pray that we have ears to hear what God is saying to us as
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  a church, that we would receive His living word, a fresh word, a
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  word of comfort, a word of encouragement, a word of
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  direction and confirmation. And our part really is to
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  prepare ourselves for him to be ready that he wants it all.
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  And I think we do too. We want all that God has for us,
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  but He gets it all. And today we learn that 2024, we
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  need to learn to live with a total commitment.
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  Commitment. I mean, in a simple definition,
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  it's you say you're going to do something and you do it.
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  Commitment. Another word for commitment
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  would be dedication. That this year we'd see a deeper
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  dedication, a more total commitment on your part to
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  follow the Lord. Now I know if we were to ask,
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  hey, how many of you want to live with great like we saw last
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  time with big great loyalty. I do, Lord, I do.
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  I want to be loyal to you. Or we ask today how many of you
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  want to live with a great commitment to the Lord.
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  I do, Lord. I I want to have great
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  commitment. And with that I want you to
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  understand that that desire for loyalty and that desire for a
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  deeper commitment will be tested.
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  You'll be tested on your desires and your commitment, even as we
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  saw last time, where Jesus looks at in John chapter 6 and he
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  looks at his disciples and he says, do you want to leave me
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  too? It was a test.
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  It was a test and a question. Do you really want to follow me
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  as as deep as you say you do? Are you really loyal to me?
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  And you and I? We will be tested through
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  difficulties and trials. We need to be ready for them.
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  You'll remember in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 26, Jesus, he
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  looks at his disciples as his apostles, and he's preparing
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  them for the cross. And he says this.
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  He says, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this
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  night, For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the
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  sheep of the flock will be scattered.
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  And that's exactly what happened.
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  The shepherd was struck and the sheep scattered.
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  The disciples were scattered. It was a time truly of them
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  having to deal with the reality of great loss and grief and fear
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  and all sorts of emotions. But it was also a time for re
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  evaluation. It was a time for them to
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  reconsider where they were, who they were, and to really examine
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  their commitment, to examine their commitment and following
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  Christ. And we have these questions from
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  time to time ourselves. We hit a roadblock.
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  We're stumbled by something, a difficulty comes our way.
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  And we start asking, what do I do now?
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  And where is my God? Sometimes we even ask, you know,
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  have have you abandoned me, God, I feel so alone right now.
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  And those are questions that we should bring to the Lord,
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  especially the question what now?
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  I mean, here we are. We're two weeks or 14 days into
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  the new year. And so many of you already have
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  faced challenges that are measuring and testing your
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  commitment to the Lord. It starts out strong, it starts
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  out with new desires, and it didn't take very long.
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  And if not 14 days, it'll be 28 days or it'll be 3 months into
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  it where your life is brought to a place of reconsideration and
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  re evaluation. Trials have a way of
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  establishing us in our faith. Challenges have a way of not,
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  you know, trials are not, they're not in our lives to
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  destroy us, But they're tools that God uses to destroy our
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  self-sufficiency and self dependency.
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  To reveal to us areas we didn't know, we didn't understand, to
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  carve out those areas of our flesh, to really kill our flesh.
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  I asked you to open into Daniel Chapter 3, and I see really a
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  great illustration of commitment.
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  If you're looking for what commitment looks like, I want
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  you to watch these young men listen to their words, follow
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  their example. We know that these young men
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  were kidnapped and brainwashed, taken from their home, taken
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  from their homeland. They were brought into a very
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  difficult situation. And here in chapter 3, by taking
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  a stand against idolatry, they're about to be murdered in
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  a very vicious way. Notice their answer to the
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  threat in chapter 3 and verse 16.
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  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king,
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  Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this
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  matter. If that is the case, If you're
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  going to, if you're going to keep your threat and throwing us
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  into the fire, notice what he says, what they say.
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  Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us.
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  He's able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he
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  will deliver us from your hand. O King, this is a place of deep
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  commitment. They're threatened with their
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  very lives after everything that's happened to them.
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  The disruption, the kidnapping, the brainwashing, the the the
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  absolute separation from their family and friends, everything
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  that's happened to them. Now you're going to punish us
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  for not being idolatrous? Hey, look, God's going to
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  deliver us. We trust him, Verse 18.
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  But if not, if he doesn't deliver us the way that we
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  think, let it be known to you, O King, we're not going to serve
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  your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have
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  set up. And I believe moving into this
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  new year, in particular 2024, this is the type of commitment
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  that God is going to give you. This is what's needed to take a
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  stand and resolve to take a stand and following God no
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  matter what you face, no matter what comes your way.
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  But it's also a test. They don't know how it's going
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  to end. Remember when you're reading the
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  Bible, those that were reading of their lives, they don't know
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  how it's going to end. We know how it ends.
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  They don't know how it ends. They're living it like you are
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  in life real time. They don't know how the this is
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  going to end. But they do know in the very
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  moment, hey, you don't intimidate me.
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  I'm not going to back down. And whether God delivers us from
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  the fire or not, we know this God is faithful and he's worthy
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  of my life. Notice in verse 19.
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  Now in response to this strong commitment, Nebuchadnezzar, it
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  says, was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed
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  towards Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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  Therefore he spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven
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  times more than it was usually heated.
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  And he commanded certain mighty men, verse 20 certain mighty men
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  of valor, who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and
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  Abednego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace.
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  And these men were bound in their coats and their trousers,
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  and their turbans, and their other garments, and were cast
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  into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
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  Therefore, because the King's command was urgent, and the
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  furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those
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  men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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  And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down
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  bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
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  A couple of things I want to show you before we move into the
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  next section here. First of all, I want you to
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  notice their names are mentioned repetitively, as if we need to
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  know that they were real people, even as God knows you
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  individually. We read in the Psalm today that
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  even as you've been crying so far in this early days of the
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  year or the latter days of last year, God takes your tears and
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  he puts them in a bottle. You matter to God.
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  And so did these young men. You know, those that grew up in
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  church kind of learned this story on the flannel board or in
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  Sunday school. But this isn't the version, the
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  Sunday school version that we're reading here.
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  This is real stuff. Real kids, real young men.
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  They're about to lose it all for their commitment to the Lord.
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  Not only that, but I also want you to notice the Holy Spirit
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  wants us to understand how they were thrown into the fire.
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  I want you to see in verse 20 it says that certain mighty men
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  were told to bind them. You see that in verse 20?
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  And then when you move to verse 21, the men were bound.
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  And then in verse 23 you see them.
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  They fell down bound many times. That is the predecessor to a
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  trial. Being bound up, bound up in sin
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  perhaps, or compromise, being bound up by traditions or
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  emotions, or a particular way of looking at things as we enter
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  into a new year and we're anticipating change and we're
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  expecting change, and we're actually even praying to embrace
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  change. We also enter in very bound up
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  by our past, bound up by bad habits, bound up by a variety of
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  different things that as we move into the difficulty we're bound.
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  But notice, notice in verse 24 it says.
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  Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and he rose in haste
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  and spoke to his counselors. Did we not cast three men bound
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  four times? We're told?
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  I just think that's a word from the Lord.
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  You've got to understand how God operates in the fires of life
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  and examine the areas and ask God to reveal the areas you may
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  be bound. They were bound Nebuchadnezzar,
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  didn't we throw them bound in the midst of the fire and they
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  answered him and said verse 24 true, O King and verse 25.
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  He says I I look, I see four men loose walking in the midst of
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  the fire and they're not hurt. And the form of the 4th is like
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  the Son of God. You see the fires of life as
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  they're turned up around us, testing our commitment, refining
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  us, flaming up against us. We need to understand there are
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  times where God will deliver us. Is that what's what we pray for?
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  He's like, oh Lord, Get Me Out of this.
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  I don't want anything to do with this.
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  Please save me, Rescue me. And on occasion, that's exactly
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  what God does. But most of the time, friends,
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  believers, Calvary understand that in the midst of the flames,
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  instead of delivering us, Jesus shows up with us.
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  He shows up with us. I mean, for most believer and
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  unbeliever alike have memorized or at least know about Psalm 23
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  and Psalm 23, verse 4. David says this.
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  He says, yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
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  of death, I will fear no evil. Why?
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  For you are with me. You are with me.
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  You see the young men, they go inbound, but they end up loose.
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  But how did they end up loosened from that which was holding them
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  and binding them together? Well, the very fires that were
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  intended to destroy them only destroyed the bonds that were
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  holding them captive. It strengthened their resolve.
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  The Lord showing up in the midst did.
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  The fire didn't go away. The fire didn't disappear.
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  They didn't claw their way out. The Lord delivered them,
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  protected them. What was meant for evil against
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  them. God is intended for good.
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  We're just finishing up on our Wednesday night Bible study
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  right now, the book of Genesis. We're getting to the very
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  pinnacle of what Joseph shares as the banner of his life.
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  A life filled with difficulty, a life filled with hardship, a
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  life where he didn't know if or when it would ever end.
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  But he comes to realization as he looks back on his life in
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  Genesis chapter 50 and verse 20. He looks at his brothers, he
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  looks at and surveys his whole the entirety of his life.
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  And he looks at his brothers and he tells them what you what the
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  devil meant for evil. God is intended for good, to
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  bring it about as it is this day salvation.
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  And you know you and I are in the same process.
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  You want great things for this coming year.
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  You've got to understand that your commitment and your loyalty
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  and your dedication to God will be tested, expected each step of
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  the way. Our full commitment will be
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  drawn out and strengthened by faith.
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  And no matter what we face this year, we must learn to live
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  through these challenges. Remember what Jesus said, Jesus
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  said in John 1633. I've told you all this.
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  He says that you might have peace in me.
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  Here on earth you'll have many trials and sorrows, or in the
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  new King James, many tribulations.
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  But take heart, because I have overcome the world.
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  Turn over to First Peter chapter four with me, would you?
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  We'll get to 2nd Corinthians eventually.
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  But notice with me, First Peter, chapter four.
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  First Peter, chapter four. Such an important truth.
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  When you get there, draw your attention to verse 12.
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  I want you to mark this. That's why I'm asking you to
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  turn there. I want you to see it, mark it,
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  understand it. Because this is one of the
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  things that you're going to face as you have a deeper resolve and
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  a deeper commitment this year as you choose to go all in in
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  certain areas. You you choose to to turn your
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  back on compromise, turn your back on your old life, turn your
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  back on those things that have been holding you and binding
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  you. You want to understand this
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  truth in first Peter Chapter 4, verse 12.
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  Notice, Peter says, Beloved, do not think it's strange
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  concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though
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  some strange thing happened to you.
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  But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's
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  sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you also may be
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  glad with exceeding joy. Church, don't think it's strange
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  concerning the fiery trials that you're going to have.
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  They're going to test and refine your commitment and your loyalty
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  and your dedication to Jesus. Don't think it's strange.
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  If you like to write in your Bible, circle the word strange.
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  It's used twice. Synonyms for this word could
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  also be translated. Astonished.
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  Don't be astonished when you come to your first trial or
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  difficulty. Don't be shocked.
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  Don't be surprised. Don't be struck down.
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  Or another word. Don't be amazed.
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  This is normal Christian living. Especially for the man or the
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  woman. Especially for the boy or the
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  girl that says I want to go deeper in the things of God.
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  You want to go deeper? Yes, I want to go deeper.
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  Then don't think it's strange that you'll be tested on that
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  commitment. Don't think it's strange.
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  It's normal. But this is a big problem for
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  us. A big stumbling block with
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  trials. You know what it is.
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  We do think it's strange. We do.
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  It does surprise us. We are amazed because we've been
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  raised with this mentality of the reward system and
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  consequence and and it's not a bad mentality.
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  We raise our children this way. There are rewards for obedience
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  and there are consequences for disobedience.
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  And so over time, that's how we think of life.
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  And it translate is it translates to this.
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  If I'm good, then good things will follow.
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  And if I'm bad, then of course we expect bad things.
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  But that's not real life. Real life is good happens to
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  good people and good things happen to bad people.
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  Real life is bad things happen to bad people, But you know, bad
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  things happen to good people too.
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  And it shocks us when we make these commitments and it shocks
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  us when we go all in and it shocks us when we we aren't.
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  We want to press into the things of God and we're met with a
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  harsh, hard, difficult trial or season of trials.
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  It does seem strange to us that the righteous suffer.
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  While the ungodly seem to get it all, it does seem strange to us
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  that after all we've done, our time will be rewarded with some
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  painful experience. It does seem strange to us that
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  here we are living for God while others hate God and seem to
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  prosper. But you know, it's not a new
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  feeling David felt this way. This is a universal human
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  response to difficulty, especially for followers of God
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  as they survey the world and consider the circumstances of
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  people's lives. David went through this.
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  You can jot it down in Psalm 73 and listen to his words and tell
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  me if that may not be how you have felt or these words have
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  come from your mouth, David says.
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  And I read from the NLT on this, look at these wicked people
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  enjoying a life of ease while their riches multiply.
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  And then David says, did I keep my heart pure for nothing?
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  Maybe you've asked that. Have I kept my heart pure?
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  Let me answer the question for you.
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  You haven't kept your heart pure ever, But you've sought to live
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  for God. You've desired to lay it all
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  down for him. You've made wise moral choices
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  being led by the Holy Spirit. That's what David's saying here.
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  Have I followed God for nothing? Is this it?
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  Is this the end? Certainly we felt this way, he
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  says. Did I keep myself innocent for
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  no reason? And then David's conclusion here
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  in Psalm 73, verse 14, I get nothing but trouble all day
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  long. Every morning brings me pain.
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  We were studying Genesis recently, and Jacob is in a
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  place in his life where he's hurting so deeply and there's so
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  much loss that he comes to the false conclusion Everything's
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  against me. It's a very difficult place to
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  be. Some of you I know are feeling
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  not even now. It seems like everything is
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  against me, but everything isn't against you.
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  God is faithful, reliable. We're surrounded by real needs,
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  by real suffering and real sorrows.
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  The room is filled today and many watching online today
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  because of the weather. The real people suffering with
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  real things but still have this genuine growing faith in Jesus.
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  The suffering, the trials are stealing your resolve to keep
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  your commitment to the Lord, to trust him, to abide in him, to
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  not run away from him. Because I can think of so many
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  that passed through my mind that didn't make it past their last
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  Test. It was their last Test that did
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  them in. It was the last thing they
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  faced. They decided, you know, no more.
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  Now whether they were saved and they're now walking off in some
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  prodigal wandering life right now, or that last Test was just
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  a a revelation that they really weren't born again to begin
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  with. Hey, you know what?
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  Either way, they didn't make it past their last Test.
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  They didn't make it past that last one.
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  I don't even know how big it might have been.
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  It could have been a series of little ones.
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  But they're no longer with us because their last Test did them
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  in. And yet God's will for you and
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  me and our lives is to pass the tests of faith, to persevere and
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  to endure, Peter says. It's not strange, Church, that
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  your commitment will be tested. It's not a strange thing.
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  You can expect it in the message version, the paraphrase.
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  I love how he puts it, he says. Friends, when life gets really
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  difficult, don't jump to conclusion that God isn't on the
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  job. He remains faithful.
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  And you're in a season where your faith is growing, where God
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  is drawing out from you, building into you a deeper
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  dedication, which is what you desire in the depths of your
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  heart. Notice with me now in Second
• 24:30
  Corinthians in chapter 12. God is at work.
• 24:35
  You know, before we get to 2nd Corinthians, go to James real
• 24:38
  quick. James chapter one, because it's
• 24:41
  important that you realize not only how God operates in the
• 24:43
  fires of life, but I want you to know that the the trials that
• 24:47
  you face are actually tools in the hand of God to develop you.
• 24:52
  And I want you to see it in James chapter one.
• 24:55
  So if you find Hebrews there, James is right next to Hebrews
• 25:00
  and right before Peter. Notice James chapter one, Trials
• 25:05
  work for us and not against us. They work in US.
• 25:10
  Notice in verse one or excuse me, verse 2.
• 25:12
  James, Chapter one, my brethren. And isn't it interesting?
• 25:17
  Just pause there for a second. Peter's about to say something
• 25:19
  hard. He don't consider it strange.
• 25:21
  And how does he start? Brothers just understand.
• 25:25
  And now James is about to say something hard.
• 25:27
  And what does he say, my brethren?
• 25:30
  Count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that
• 25:36
  the testing of your faith produces patience.
• 25:44
  But let patience have it's perfect work, that you may be
• 25:48
  perfect and complete, and that word perfect can be translated
• 25:52
  mature. You're growing up in the faith.
• 25:56
  Every time you face something, every time you have a
• 25:59
  difficulty, every time there's hardship.
• 26:03
  Small, medium, large, all of them.
• 26:06
  Every single time God is building maturity, and you may
• 26:11
  not be, you, not you may not be able to control what comes to
• 26:14
  you. You may not be able to control
• 26:16
  when it comes to you or how it comes to you.
• 26:18
  But friends understand this. You control how you respond, and
• 26:24
  how you respond will really set the tone for the amount of
• 26:30
  maturity you're going to grow through that situation.
• 26:32
  So notice he says that you may be mature and complete, lacking
• 26:35
  nothing. Verse 5 And if any of you lacks
• 26:38
  wisdom, in the midst of the trial, let him ask of God, who
• 26:43
  gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be
• 26:47
  given to him. You're even as you're looking
• 26:53
  for wisdom today. God is ready to give it to you
• 26:56
  more than even what you ask. And it was we learned last time.
• 26:59
  Verse 6 But let him ask in faith with no doubting.
• 27:04
  For he who doubts is like the wave of the sea driven and
• 27:07
  tossed by the wind. Let not that man suppose he'll
• 27:10
  receive anything from the Lord. He's double minded, unstable in
• 27:15
  all his ways. God is working through the
• 27:19
  difficulty now. Second Corinthians chapter 12.
• 27:23
  Let's look at this final example together of an episode in the
• 27:27
  life of Paul the Apostle. It's not simply an episode, it's
• 27:32
  14 years and counting at this time that he's been dealing with
• 27:36
  the same trial, 14 years and counting.
• 27:41
  And in those fourteen years he's been dealing with this
• 27:44
  difficulty that has drawn him closer to the Lord.
• 27:49
  He lets us in on this one moment in his life among the 14 years
• 27:54
  where he finally just cries out to God about it.
• 27:57
  Second Corinthians chapter 12. Notice with me in beginning in
• 28:03
  verse 7 Paul says, And lest I should be exalted above measure
• 28:10
  by the abundance of the revelations, A thorn in the
• 28:14
  flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me,
• 28:19
  lest I be exalted above measure. Verse 8.
• 28:24
  Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that
• 28:28
  it might depart from me. And he said to me, My grace is
• 28:32
  sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in
• 28:36
  weakness. Therefore most gladly I'd rather
• 28:40
  boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon
• 28:44
  me. Therefore I take pleasure in
• 28:48
  infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in
• 28:54
  distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am
• 29:02
  strong. If you do the math, putting
• 29:05
  together the things that Paul shares in his letters with us,
• 29:09
  it's been 14 years that he's been dealing with this thorn in
• 29:14
  his flesh. 14 years is a long time to deal with the same
• 29:18
  trial, the same difficulty, the same hardship.
• 29:24
  But God has been using it to mature Him and to humble Him and
• 29:29
  to strengthen Him. And because of, as we see in
• 29:33
  chapter 12 of all that, He's experienced all the wonderful
• 29:36
  fruit from his life. And by the way, it is God's will
• 29:40
  for you to bear much fruit. It's God's will for you to be
• 29:43
  used in great ways. And because He was used in great
• 29:47
  ways, we see that these things were given to Him to keep him
• 29:50
  humble, that God used them to bring Him to a place of
• 29:56
  dependence. And he describes in verse 7 this
• 30:02
  trial as a thorn. It's the Greek word scalapos.
• 30:08
  And whatever it was, this word describes a very painful,
• 30:14
  irritating and humbling situation.
• 30:18
  The word actually in the Greek means a pointed sharp like hook
• 30:23
  like or or tent stake. It's something that was very
• 30:27
  painful and annoying, and he describes it that it was given
• 30:32
  to him in his flesh could be in his humanity or it could be in
• 30:36
  his physical thing. So there's a lot of speculation
• 30:40
  of what it was. We just learned in our study,
• 30:43
  verse by verse in Acts, that Paul picked up an eye disease in
• 30:46
  the region of Galatia, and many believe that it's this chronic,
• 30:50
  oozing, disgusting eye problem that he picked up when he was
• 30:54
  ministering in Galatia. Other people, they will look at
• 30:58
  it and say no. What he's describing is this
• 31:00
  difficulty of these Judaizers, who we also met recently in our
• 31:05
  study in the book of Acts, that followed him around throughout
• 31:08
  his ministry. Trying to destroy him, trying
• 31:10
  to, not even not just trying, but wanting to destroy him.
• 31:14
  Lying about him, trying to bring about a challenging situation in
• 31:20
  every city that he went to, even attempting to kill him and stir
• 31:23
  up the crowd against him. Others believe that it is partly
• 31:28
  an emotional situation that he carried around because of the
• 31:32
  regret he had toward his participation in the death of
• 31:36
  innocent Stephen. I think it could be all three
• 31:41
  because they all three carried. You know, the longer we live in
• 31:44
  life, the more we look at life and go, man, I've got this and
• 31:47
  I've got this and I've got this. Whatever it was, it irritated
• 31:51
  him and brought him to the place finally where he says I don't
• 31:55
  want it. How do we know that?
• 31:57
  Where he says right here in verse 8.
• 31:59
  Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times.
• 32:02
  Now I think I'm carrying something around for 14 years.
• 32:05
  I mean, I've been carrying some around for at least 10 years.
• 32:07
  I I pleaded with the Lord a lot, more than three times.
• 32:11
  But he came to a place where he says, you know what, there was
• 32:15
  this time I just beg God to take it away.
• 32:19
  And God gave me my answer. And what was the answer to his
• 32:22
  prayer in verse 9? The answer to his prayer in
• 32:25
  verse 9 for taking this thrown away was no.
• 32:30
  So in just in case you ever go to a Bible trivia and the
• 32:34
  question is asked when when Paul asked to have his thorn taken
• 32:36
  away what did what was God's answer?
• 32:38
  His answer was say at church? No.
• 32:41
  Sometimes God says no. You go.
• 32:44
  Wait a minute, Ed. I'm reading the Bible here and
• 32:46
  it says that Jesus answered him, My grace is sufficient for you.
• 32:50
  My strength is made perfect in weakness.
• 32:52
  That's God's gracious explanation.
• 32:57
  Because, you know, God doesn't always have to give us an
• 32:58
  explanation of why he says no. But Paul was given some insight
• 33:03
  of why the answer was no. And here it is.
• 33:06
  You know what, Paul? My grace is sufficient for you.
• 33:09
  You're going to be OK. This is the place I want you.
• 33:15
  This is the place of commitment that I brought you.
• 33:18
  And you're going to go deeper and deeper and deeper because of
• 33:22
  this thorn. You're going to cry out to me.
• 33:25
  You're going to learn something. This thorn is going to teach you
• 33:28
  something that no book can teach you.
• 33:30
  No Bible study can teach you. No.
• 33:33
  No one can even tell you this. You're going to learn it.
• 33:36
  Jesus says my strength is perfect.
• 33:39
  In you, Paul. When you're weak, the more
• 33:43
  proportionately weak you are, the more proportionately you're
• 33:47
  going to experience my strength. I'm not going to take it away.
• 33:51
  And from every indication in Paul's life, it was never taken
• 33:54
  away. You know, You would think later
• 33:58
  on, in his later letters, like to Timothy or to Titus, he would
• 34:01
  finally write, oh, I finished my race.
• 34:04
  I'm finishing it with joy. And by the way, God did take my
• 34:07
  thorn away. He never says it.
• 34:10
  There's a good indication that he lived with it the rest of his
• 34:13
  life, and he learned a valuable lesson of the sufficiency of
• 34:18
  God's grace. You see, like Paul, when we
• 34:24
  asked from help from the Lord, God gives not just an answer,
• 34:27
  but he gives himself. We want something to be done,
• 34:32
  but God's desire is that we want someone and not something.
• 34:38
  That's where commitment comes from, comes from love.
• 34:41
  The purpose of prayer is not that he might give help to us,
• 34:45
  but the purpose of prayer is that he might give himself to us
• 34:49
  while he works through the situation.
• 34:52
  Pastor John Corson, I think has the best commentary on this that
• 34:55
  I've read thus far, and let me quote it for you as his comment
• 34:58
  on this section. And I quote the Father says you
• 35:02
  want me to take away the pain and to solve the problem and to
• 35:06
  get you out of the situation. But that's not what you need.
• 35:10
  You need me. And the very problem you're
• 35:15
  seeking to get away from the very situation you desire to get
• 35:19
  out of is the very one that's causing you to talk to me and
• 35:23
  spend time with me and depend upon me.
• 35:26
  You'll be stronger when you're weaker because you'll have no
• 35:30
  other choice than the draw strength from me.
• 35:34
  You'll do better when you're weak because you have me to rely
• 35:39
  upon. End Quote.
• 35:41
  And that was the conclusion. Paul grew up through this thorn.
• 35:47
  Notice in verse nine he grew up his conclusion, He says most
• 35:52
  gladly. I'd rather boast in my
• 35:54
  infirmities. Now there's joy and gladness
• 35:58
  that has come through this thorn through this time of interceding
• 36:04
  and pressing into the things of God.
• 36:06
  Then in verse 10, there's another level of maturity.
• 36:09
  He says, Now, I take pleasure in these things.
• 36:12
  I mean, that's a place of maturity.
• 36:15
  I'm not there yet. I mean, some of you might be
• 36:18
  there yet, like Paul, but I'm not to be able to stand.
• 36:21
  I take pleasure in infirmities. I really, I don't enjoy
• 36:25
  infirmities very much at all. I mean, I know God's going to
• 36:28
  use them. I've seen it.
• 36:30
  I I know that. You know, just thinking of of,
• 36:32
  you know, the tragedy of losing my son 10 years ago, I'm 10
• 36:35
  years farther. I can see how God has used that
• 36:38
  trial and how God has used that difficulty.
• 36:40
  I'm 10 years separate from it. It was harder to see in the
• 36:43
  beginning, and I can see now, but still pleasure in some
• 36:49
  infirmity, pleasure in some difficulty.
• 36:53
  That's a place of maturity, and it may seem very far off from us
• 36:58
  right now, but that's the destination.
• 37:02
  That's a place of deep commitment and dependence.
• 37:05
  That's a place of surrender where you just finally you just
• 37:09
  like you know what, Lord you you are right and I am wrong.
• 37:15
  You you have a purpose in this, Lord, and I'm just not seeing
• 37:19
  it, right. I I just don't understand it.
• 37:22
  And I need to trust you. That's what the New Year had.
• 37:25
  That's what's ahead for you in the New Year Church.
• 37:28
  A place of commitment to be glad and joyful, to take pleasure in
• 37:35
  the work of God, even if and even when, for Christ's sake,
• 37:43
  it's challenges and difficulties where you throw up your hands
• 37:48
  and say, I'm committed to you, Lord, where else am I going to
• 37:51
  go? What other options do I have?
• 37:57
  See, God brings us to the end of ourselves.
• 37:59
  The Lord says my strength will be made perfect in your
• 38:02
  weakness. I know we don't value weakness
• 38:05
  too much in our culture. We try everything to give this
• 38:08
  air that we're strong and we can get through and we'll put on a
• 38:10
  good face. But God values weakness and
• 38:15
  transparency and truthfulness. You see, wherever we feel
• 38:20
  strong, wherever we think we can handle it, whenever we think we
• 38:26
  don't need help, that we're capable.
• 38:28
  That's the area, you know, where you're most apartment to
• 38:31
  stumble. That's the area where you're
• 38:33
  most apartment to fall because you're trusting in yourself,
• 38:38
  because you know and you've done it and you've been around and
• 38:41
  you've been to school and you've read the Bible.
• 38:44
  I have met so many people. It's OK You know, Pastor, I've
• 38:47
  read the Bible. Yeah, I'm still reading the
• 38:52
  Bible. It's not an event.
• 38:55
  It's a life. And I don't want to depend on my
• 38:59
  own strengths and my own abilities and my own power.
• 39:04
  You see, some of you, you, you, you have just an amazing
• 39:08
  education. You're so strong and so wise,
• 39:13
  But the temptation is to rely upon your wisdom.
• 39:16
  Some of you, you, you're just so successful.
• 39:20
  It seems like your whole life you've just been so blessed and
• 39:22
  success and you have an abundance at work and you have
• 39:26
  an abundance of money and you could just write a check for
• 39:28
  this and you can just write a check for that and and that's
• 39:31
  how you've been living life. But I'm telling you, when you're
• 39:34
  you live life depending upon your wisdom, depending upon your
• 39:39
  looks, depending upon your money, depending upon your
• 39:43
  education, whatever it might be. You got to understand something.
• 39:47
  There is coming a day when you're going to face something
• 39:53
  that you will not be able to handle with any of those things.
• 39:59
  You're not going to be able to handle it.
• 40:00
  It's going to be bigger than you.
• 40:04
  It's going to be bigger than your resources.
• 40:07
  And if you're the kind of person that's self confident and self
• 40:10
  reliable and capable, pull yourself up by the bootstraps
• 40:14
  kind of person. You're going to come up up
• 40:16
  against a thing where you're not able to handle it and it will
• 40:19
  destroy you. It will crush you under its
• 40:23
  weight. Sometimes it crushes you under
• 40:27
  the weight and you've tried everything you have and you have
• 40:29
  nothing left to give. And God has brought you to the
• 40:33
  end of yourself. He's brought you to the end of
• 40:38
  yourself. Believers can live this way too.
• 40:41
  And it's a strong, hard, difficult crashing down where
• 40:47
  perhaps like this thorn in Paul's side brought him to the
• 40:53
  end of himself, that he might cry out in a deeper dependence
• 40:57
  and trust and say, OK, God, I'll live with the thorn.
• 41:01
  But I want more of you. I desire more of you.
• 41:07
  It's in those areas where you know you're weak.
• 41:11
  You admit that you're weak. You live in a life like I got to
• 41:14
  trust God on this one. That's the place in that place
• 41:19
  of weakness, that you experience the strength of God, where He
• 41:24
  carries you along day by day, where you're able to stand
• 41:29
  strong by faith. And you can then go through
• 41:33
  things that you never dreamed that you'd ever go through
• 41:38
  because of your dependence upon the Lord and Church.
• 41:41
  I just want you to be prepared of all the great things that are
• 41:44
  ahead, all the wonderful things, all the things of faith, all the
• 41:48
  things of walking by faith. Your commitment and your
• 41:52
  dependence will be tested. And the testing and the trials.
• 42:01
  Not designed to destroy you, but rather to build you up, to take
• 42:05
  away those layers of self dependency that hold us back.
• 42:10
  We're bound by them. We're bound by our flesh.
• 42:14
  At times we present ourselves to sin.
• 42:18
  We become slaves of sin, and we're bound.
• 42:22
  And it's through the fires of life and the situations we face
• 42:26
  that we then are loosed. And remember, you read Daniel
• 42:30
  again 4 * 4 times. We're told they were bound,
• 42:36
  bound, bound, bound. And we don't want to live life
• 42:42
  like that. We desire to be loosed and free
• 42:46
  by grace. You know, my pastor is a new
• 42:49
  believer. He would always talk about God
• 42:52
  will give you a grace. He'll give you a grace and
• 42:54
  he'll, he'll, he would describe some trial and then the Lord, he
• 42:57
  would say that God would give you a grace to get there.
• 43:00
  And I as a new believer, I just didn't understand that.
• 43:02
  I was always listening to him and thinking, well, I want grace
• 43:05
  now and I want to put it in my back pocket.
• 43:07
  I like, I'm a saver. I want to save it.
• 43:09
  I want to be prepared for it. But then life started happening
• 43:12
  and I learned exactly what he meant.
• 43:15
  That God's not going to give you the grace for the trial next
• 43:17
  year, today, because then you wouldn't live by faith.
• 43:22
  He's going to give you the grace and the strength and the help
• 43:25
  that you need. Listen when you need it.
• 43:30
  And there'll be a grace for the trial coming up.
• 43:32
  And there'll be a grace for the fire coming up.
• 43:35
  And there'll be a grace for the challenge coming up.
• 43:38
  But it'll come when it's needed. And along the way, he's calling
• 43:43
  us to live by faith. And you know, we can look back,
• 43:45
  Some of us, we can look back. And oh, man, Lord, you've been
• 43:48
  so good. You gave us a grace to endure.
• 43:52
  You gave us a grace to endure this thing.
• 43:53
  I never even knew it. I never even knew that exists.
• 43:56
  I didn't even know that was the kind of trial that somebody
• 43:58
  could go through. But when I faced it, you were
• 44:01
  there. Your grace was sufficient for
• 44:06
  every situation. And you made my resolve and my
• 44:11
  commitment and my dependence and my desire to follow you and my
• 44:14
  life of surrender in an even deeper way.
• 44:17
  And as we look into a new year, just know we can do like Paul
• 44:21
  said, all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us.
• 44:26
  And as we head in, know that the Lord will be with you, and it
• 44:29
  will be strengthening you. And the difference between my
• 44:32
  strength and His strength is the difference between night and
• 44:37
  day. And I want to face whatever the
• 44:40
  Lord has in the new year by His strength as I come to Him with a
• 44:46
  committed life. Amen.
• 44:49
  Amen. Lord, thank you for the
• 44:50
  privilege as we head now into the communion table, that
• 44:54
  privilege of understanding your great grace for us, your love
• 44:59
  for us, Lord, your care and concern for our lives.
• 45:04
  I pray, Lord, that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit,
• 45:09
  teaching us what it means to live for you, God growing us in
• 45:16
  grace. Your grace is sufficient.
• 45:19
  And those are just words until we need to live them, until we
• 45:23
  recognize our weakness before you, Lord.
• 45:27
  And so our desire today is to grow, to be prepared for what's
• 45:32
  up ahead. We want to live this year with
• 45:34
  loyalty. We want to live this year with
• 45:37
  commitment, but we recognize that it'll be tested.
• 45:43
  They'll be brought to the place where our words will then be
• 45:47
  matched to our lives. And I pray that we just come to
• 45:51
  that place of surrender to you. Lord, receive your answers and
• 45:56
  live by faith in Jesus name. Amen.
• 46:01
  We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
• 46:04
  delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church for
• 46:07
  prayer. Call us at 87730 Grace.
• 46:12
  That's 877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
• 46:18
  entirety or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
• 46:22
  online at Calvary, Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
• 46:27
  Church app. Be blessed as You Worship Jesus
• 46:30
  this week.