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Real Men of Faith
As today is Father's Day I thought I would look at some godly men from
the Bible. My heart in doing this is that we will see the things they
did and see how we can put them into practice into our daily lives.
While their situation is different to what we face, we can get some
underlying principles that will help us in our daily lives. I am hoping
that these young men will inspire you to make a stand and be “Real Men
of Faith”.
Reading - Daniel chapter 3 - The Image of Gold and the Fiery Furnace
(click
here to view on BibleGateway.com)
I don't know about you but this is a very inspiration story for me. I
just love the way they trusted God and made a stand.
In particular three things really jumped out at me during this passage.
Three things that start with the letter “D”.
1. These guys were different (v16)
They didn't regard the king as anyone special. They served him, but they
did not hold him as high regard as the Lord. They didn't follow his
gods. Nor they didn't bow down and worship the golden image. They didn't
just go with the flow and do what everyone else was doing.
Jesus was different...
When I think about this I think about my best friend Jesus. He lived a
righteous life in a sinful world. He didn't get caught up in going with
the flow, even though He was tempted to by the devil. It would have been
easy for Him to be all the things the people wanted Him to be. But Jesus
kept focussed. He knew He had a greater mission, a greater purpose and
He stuck with it. He was different.
Likewise the things that Jesus taught were different. He taught people
to love their enemies and pray for those who persecuted you. That was
not the way things were done. If someone wronged you, you had to get
them back at all costs. He told people if they wanted to be the
greatest, they had to be the servant of all. He told people to look
after the orphans and the widows and store up their treasures in heaven,
not to store up for the here and now. He was different and His teachings
call us to live differently.
We are called to be different...
The Bible tells us that when we come to Christ that we are born again.
It is a new beginning. We are a new creation and the old is gone. We
need to avoid all the things that 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 talks about –
idol worship, sexual sin, stealing, drinking too much, being abusive.
If we are going to be Real Men of Faith - We need to live differently
and we need hold firm to who God has called us to be.
2. These guys were Daring (v16)
In verse 16 we see that Shadrach, Meshach and Abegnego were not afraid
to speak up before the king. They spoke out and told the king that even
if we are thrown into the blazing furnace, our God will save us. That is
great faith and daring. Imagine standing before Hitler, Mugabe or Saddam
Hussain when he was alive and saying that!
They went on to say that even if He doesn't save us. We will never serve
or bow down to your gods. That is amazing.
Reminds me of me many years ago...
I remember when I first became a Christian. I would do anything for
Jesus. I would sit on the jam packed bus and read my Bible openly. I
would tell anyone about Jesus. I would take a stand on issues. I would
fly the flag of my beliefs. No-one had to wonder where I stood on a
issue. They would know. I would risk losing my job rather than doing
something that seemed wrong. I even spoke out once and confronted my
boss when he lied openly to someone. Boy did that cause me some strife
for a time. But it was worth it.
Then like some people. We might start to slide back into the everyday.
We might dial back on our enthusiasm. We might take the road less
travelled so we don't rock the boat. Some of us might get complacent
with sin and try to say, "I am not that bad. I am only human". We might
get so complacent that we never witness. We might even try to talk
ourselves of getting involved in something because it might not work out
and we might look silly.
Called to be Daring...
Men. I believe we are called to be Daring. The Bible says to us in Acts
1:8 that we shall receive power. Power is not a timid, shy or reclusive
type of word. It is a bold, daring and out there word. We need to be
bold and take a stand like our three friends in the passage today.
To be Real Men of Faith - we need to be Daring with a capital D.
3. These guys were Dedicated (V17-18)
These three guys were absolutely committed to the point of trusting God
with their lives. "He is able to deliver us. Even if He doesn't we will
still be true to Him," they said. To me that is amazing faith. It is
faith in the highest regard. Trusting God not only to supply your needs
but to save you. That is real dedication.
Angry or feeling let down by God...
At times in my Christian walk I have struggled. I have been angry and
felt let down by God. Especially early on in
my journey. When things would go wrong I would yell and scream at God
and tell Him He is not faithful and ask Him how He could let this
happen.
Now some people in some other churches might sometimes, maybe on a rare
ocassion might get angry with God.
- We might wonder how He could let us lose our jobs,
- wonder why He is not healing us and how He could let us suffer so
much,
- wonder why He didn't save the farm or our business,
- wonder why He didn't save one of our friends or families from dying
- wonder why He let our families break down.
- wonder why our kids are not living the way we hope they will live.
This anger or disappointment is a normal thing and I know God understands
that sometimes we get angry with Him. He is big enough to take it and there
is nothing we could say in anger or frustration that He has not heard
millions of times before.
I think the key in all of this is that when bad things happen we can either
run away from God and shake our fist at Him or we can run towards God. We
can look to Him and trust Him for the outcome. In my years of suffering with
chronic illness, soul destroying depression and living with the results of
family breakdown I chose to trust God.
Being Dedicated
Men. If we want to be dedicated we need to hold firm to the things of God.
We need to commit to prayer, reading the Bible, to coming to church, we need
to be willing to stand up for what is right and be bold. We need to be
willing to follow God and His principles from the Bible when all else is
against us.
If we are going to be Real Men of Faith - we dedicated and stand firm in our
faith no matter what the world throws at us. When we do it makes a statement
and like these three young men, it changed the world around them.
We need to be like Job who said, "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;
I will surely defend my ways to his face" (Job 13:15)
Summary
These three guys were delivered from their
situation. They weren't alone in the fiery furnace. There was another person
their with them. Only the ropes were burned off. There was no smell of fire
on them and not one hair was singed. In the midst of the storm in their
lives, God delivered them.
I believe that if we as men are different to what the world pumps out, bold
in the things we do and say and dedicated to the things of God. God will
deliver us too when our fiery furnace comes. He will be standing right in
the midst of us. He delivered them because they chose to be strong dedicated
Men of Real Faith.
Their witness still stands more than 2600 years
later. That is their legacy to us. What will your legacy
be? Will your legacy be that of a wavering man or a Man of Real
Faith?
Let's pray.
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