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Courage Under Fire · G. T. Ministries

• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Always abounding in the work of the Lord.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: John P.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Key said to stand.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: This powerful song encourages us to stand, to stand.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: We bless him this morning.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Give God all the praise.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: In the Bible, there was three young men, young, uh, young, had to be teenagers, stood for what was right.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Someone called Shaprak, Meshach, Abinigo.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I call him Hananiah, Meshach, and Arazara.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: That was their godly name.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: But when Nebuchadnezzar brought them over to Babylon, you know, he tried to change them.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: He changed, he changed their name, but he couldn't change their character.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, they couldn't.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because in Daniel 3, 16 and 18, it says Hananiah, Meshel, and Ariziah answered and said to the king, O King, we are not careful to answer you in this matter.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: If it be so that our God to whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O King.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: But if not, be it known unto you, O king, that we will not serve your gods.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now worship the golden image which you have set up.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: They was courageous.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Courage is not the absent of fire.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Courage is refusing to bow because of the fire.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know you don't know your courage until you're under fire.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is easy to talk about courage when there is no fire.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: It is easy to say I trust God when everything is going well.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, it's easy to say I won't be moved when nobody is pushing you.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to say I'll stand for God when everybody around you is standing too.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, courage is proven when the pressure increases, the opposition gets stronger, the consequences become real, and standing for God starts causing you something.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's courage under fire.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's a message this morning.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Courage under fire.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Fire has a way of revealing what some things is made of.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Some materials melt under fire.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Some materials burn in fire.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: But other materials become stronger through fire.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes God allows us to go through fiery situations.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Not because he abandoned us, but because there are things about our faith that can only be demonstrated when under fire.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Nebuchadnezzar had built a golden image.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Daniel 3, 5 and 6 says that when the music played, everybody was commanded to bow.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And whoever refuses would be cast into the midst of the fiery, burning, fiery furnace.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Just imagine the pressure.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thousands may have been bowing.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Government officials bowing.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Leaders was bowing.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody around them was bowing.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: But these three Hubu boys remained standing.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hananiah, Mesha, and Arizira.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Their attitude was everybody else may bow, but we won't bow.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: First Corinthians fifteen fifty eight Steadfast, unmovable.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So what can we learn about having courage on the fire?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, courage knows what it believes before the fire comes.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Courage knows what it believes before the fire come.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hananiah, Mesha, Arizona didn't decide what they believed when they saw the furnace.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Their conviction had already been established.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: They knew God's command.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then in Exodus 5, it says, Thou shalt not bow thyself down to them.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: So when Nebuchadnezzar said, Bow, you know what?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: They had already decided no.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Stadfat people don't wait until the pressure comes to decide their conviction.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Some things need to be settled beforehand.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: I will serve God.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you listen to me this morning, say that you may not can talk too loud if you're on the job or whatever you got your evil or pugs on or whatever the case may be.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're in a place where you can just say out loud, if you're in a place where you listen and you can't say, you can say it within yourself.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: The I wills.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: I will obey his word.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I will remain faithful.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I will not compromise my conviction to fit in.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Are you with me?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Some young man, young lady, and you in the group with a group of them, and they all smoking marijuana.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And they want you to take a drag.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's decision time now.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, you can say no.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to do what you're doing.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to follow the crowd.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I know they might be belittle you or talk about you and say, you know, call you a nerd or whatever they call them today.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: But you gotta be anchored in the Lord.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: You don't wait until the storm has carried the ship away to drop the anchor.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: The anchor must be ready before the storm.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Settle some things in your heart before temptation comes.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Courage start with conviction.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Courage stands when everybody else bows.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just go back to that day and imagine the scene of what took place back then.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Just picture in your mind.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: The music start playing.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, music has a way of getting you going.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was looking at that uh Madonna uh uh concert or whatever they call it.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just I was just see how how uh look like they drugged up what they're doing all on the floor, acting like cats and dogs shaking their bodies.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Just on I mean on and people love it.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: This lady get millions of dollars.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I can't bow to that stuff, I'm sorry.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's weird, it's far out, it takes you out of the realm of of uh into uh uh the realm of knowing better and takes you uh take you uh some places that is far out of this world.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and people love it.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: God ain't pleased with, he's not pleased with that.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: They pay money to go see it, and it it, you know, it's it's it's like an opium drug.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, courage means willing to be different.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Means willing to be different.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know what my Bible tells me in Romans 12 and 2?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Be not conformed to this world.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: It takes courage to live for God when everybody around you is moving in another direction.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I didn't purposely go see Madonna, I know somebody, so well, you watching it.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, I was chasing through the TV then I saw it and looked at it and saw how they was acting.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you know what?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: I changed the channel because I didn't I didn't want that.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you got to change the channel of things because if you allow it and you look at it long enough, it gets into your spirit because your flesh craves fleshly things.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: It does.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: It takes courage to say, I won't do it just because everybody else is doing it.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Noah stood when his generation was wicked.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what Joshua said?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Joshua spoke up for his household, and that's why every man should stand up for his household.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: He should be the spokesman in the house.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: The man, take the lead.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's the base.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's the base, he's the one that that uh you know listen.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: When Eve sinned, then nothing happened.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you notice that, as she did sin, she ate of the forbidden fruit, whatever it was.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: But then nothing happened.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Punishment came down when Adam ate, because the the uh the the command was given to him.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: All he had to do is say to the wife, honey, you know, you know, the Lord didn't want us to uh do that, you know.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: What you did was wrong.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: But he didn't.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: He joined right in with her.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And if anybody doing something wrong and you know it's wrong, and you go and join in with them, you're wrong, especially when the commandment has been given to you and you have the power to put things in his place.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: When you let things go on in your own home, and you don't put things in place, you let your children run rapid.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: You let them take over the house.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: They have to sleep in with their girlfriends and boyfriends, and you let them sleep in your house, you let them have sex in your house while you're there?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: They're not married.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's what a lot of parents are doing today, but you in my time you didn't do that.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: They'll lie you had a girlfriend, boyfriend, but you weren't bringing nobody over into the house and they wasn't gonna be standing there and standing in your bed and having fun.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: So-called fun.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's a standard that we all have to have.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Especially as men.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Taking care of our households, training up our children, because what we uh train them up with, that's what they live with.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And today, that same spirit my daddy had, I had it.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: My children know that.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna respect your house and respect leadership.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Daniel prayed when prayer became illegal.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And these three rhuboys stood when everybody else bowed.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a dead flesh floats with the current, but a living fish can swim against it.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody can follow the crowd, but it takes spiritual life to say I'm going God's way even if the crowd is going another way.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: I preached some years ago.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: God's way is the best way.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Are you listening this morning?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, don't cut me off because I'm preaching real good now.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be oh I heard some somebody say, Well, it's getting a little too hot in here right now.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the rubber is meeting the road.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, praise God.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're not dogmatic with the truth.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: The truth is just the truth.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: When we speak the truth in love.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Not that I'm better or anybody else.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in the same fleshly world that you is.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: You we all are, and we but God has given us guidelines to follow.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now but Kenel gave them another opportunity.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'll play the music again.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: This time bow.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then he asked, and who is that God shall deliver you out of my hand?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: He increased the pressure.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: But the answer was in Daniel 316, we are not careful to answer you in this manner.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, we don't need another meeting.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need more time.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Our minds are already made up.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Some decisions should not be renegotiated every time pressure increases.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: If God said it yesterday, it's still right today.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Suppose you walk into a store and something has a sign not for sale.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter how much somebody offers, the answer remains.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's not for sale.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody needs to put on the sign and on your conviction, not for sale.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: My faith is not for sale.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: My worship is not for sale.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: My integrity is not for sale.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: My relationship with God is not for sale.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Glory be to God.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Courage, believe God is able.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Daniel 3, 17.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Before they entered the furnace, they declared, Our God is able.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't know exactly what God would do, but they knew what they knew what God could do.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Ecclesiastes.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm sorry, Ephesians 3 and 20 says, now unto him that is able to do it is sealing in abundantly above all that we can ask or think.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: So when we are under under fire, remind yourself God is able.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Store, he's able to open doors, he's able to make a way, he's able to keep you, he's able to bring you through.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: When Daniel faced alive, he remembered the line in the bear.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yesterday's victories gave him courage for today, giant.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: We heard the message by Minister Freddie on Sunday.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be intimidated by your giants.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh hallelujah.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when you're under fire, you need to look back and remember.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't the first time God had brought me uh through brought me through uh through these this God courage God courage trust God even when the answer is but if not this may be the strongest part of the entire story in Daniel 3 and 18 But if not but if not we will not serve your gods They said God can deliver us but when they said but if not that's mature faith in mature faith says I serve God if he does what I want but mature faith says I serve God because he is God You know what Job said in and in Job 13 15 Though he slay me yet will I trust him this is where steadfastness becomes real if uh God open the door I praise him but if not I still praise him if he changes the situation I trust him but if not I still trust him if he brings me out immediately I'll serve him but if not I'm still not bowing hallelujah you know marriage vows I'm supposed to say for better only it didn't say for better only he said for better or for worse richer or poor in sickness and health to death do your part Lord have mercy commitment is demonstrated when conditions aren't ideal our commitment to God cannot depend entirely upon comfortable conditions oh hallelujah because sometimes God doesn't keep you from the fire he meets you in it they stood for God yet they still was thrown into the furnace that teaches us something important faithfulness does not guarantee no fire sometimes faith will will take you through the fire of Daniel 3 24 25 new Nehemiah looked into the furnace and said did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire they answered True O King then he said Lo I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt they put three in but Nebuchadnezzar saw the four walking around the fire doesn't cause God to abandon us the fire reveals that they were not alone in Isaiah 43 and 2 says when they're walking through the fire thou should not be burned neither shall the flame kindle upon you thank you Jesus we gotta come in now but during a classroom test the teacher may be quiet but quiet doesn't mean the teacher left the room somebody may be in a in a season where God seems quiet don't mistake God's silence for God's absence he's still there thank you Jesus the fire may burn what you are what is what was binding you fire may burn but what is binding you Daniel say Daniel said in 321 he was thrown in the first bow in their coats but when Nebuchadnezzar looked in he said I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire they went into the fire abound but they was walking around loose the fire that was supposed to destroy them destroyed what was binding them sometimes God will use what you thought would destroy you to free you.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: The tribe may burn away fear dependence on people pride but thank you Jesus I'm glad that we have a God praise God is with us in the fire you know gold is heated so impurities can be separated from what is valuable the fire isn't always evidence that we are worthless sometimes the fire reveal what really what really is in you thank you Jesus praise God courage on the fire God bless you this morning thank you for tuning in here on GoPartyonline dot org God bless you this morning Jesus name hallelujah