Well, good morning church. Come on now. Good morning church. All right. All right. That's where we're going with that. Oh, my name is Pastor Clark if we have not met um I am filling in for Pastor John. Uh Pastor John is actually on holiday with his uh family and they are um just kind of rejuvenating and um just kind of coming together as a family and I just pray that you would, you would lift them up while they're gone and uh that they would just enjoy this time. So um for me, uh I, I am so blessed. I can't even tell you I am so blessed by all the people that have supported me, my family, my friends, everyone, all the students throughout the years. Um II, I love you all. So I just wanna say that I'm so blessed that I love you all and I just, I thank you so much for all these years. See, I'm not supposed to be crying at the beginning. That would be good. That would be good. Like Good Friday service though, wouldn't it? I start crying? I don't know. Anyway. All right. So, so we in the last couple of weeks. Uh Pastor John has gone through the first two chapters of Daniel and uh we're gonna be jumping into Jan Daniel three today. So let's get to it if I can see it through my, so many times, so many times we hear about great stories of the Bible, right? Stories of exceptional courage and leadership of God's people, stories of overcoming huge obstacles and overpowering, relentless enemies. But how does that, how does one obtain that kind of status? Right? Is it something that we're born into kind of a role that's passed down from generation to generation or is it one of those things that happen over time? Right? That we, we are knocked down and then we have to pull ourselves back up to be able to be formed into this, whatever our personality or our, our grit or whatever effect effectiveness is today. I'm gonna be hitting you with a couple of stories that have the potential for you to look at your own life and ask three questions, what factors actually shaped my identity, what parts of my life were influenced by me or by others? And finally, what is the one thing that pivotal point that that happened to me that changed my identity and potentially my life forever. We're gonna be picking up the story in Daniel three, of course. But let me give you a little bit of history first. If you're brand new to this church thing. No worries, Daniel. The Book of Daniel is actually about two thirds of the way through the Old Testament. Right. It's right in between Ezekiel and Hosea. And if you'd like to cheat, like me, just go to the front of the Bible and I'll give you the exact page number. It's called. Daniel has sent around 5 to 600 BC and the Kingdom of Jerusalem has just been overtaken by the Babylonians and only the brightest and the healthiest and actually the best looking were taken as slaves and the Babylonians hope to potentially become just like they were four of these men, young men that were taken. We're known as Daniel, of course, Shadrack Meshack and Abednego. Can I just tell you that these sound like the perfect bachelorette names. Am I right? Do you see them getting out of the limo? All three of them at the same time walking up. Hey, baby Shadrack me, Shaq, you better go. We're here to stand for your love. Mhm. Very biblical. I know, I know I get that and that's why I'm here today for you guys. So in chapter three, we see that King Nebuchadnezzar has constructed this massive statue. This actually says an image of gold, 60 cubits high and six cubits wide. And you're like, what's a cubit? Well, there's 1.5 cubits or 1.5 ft in every cubit. So old school math, right? Tells us that's 90 ft tall and 9 ft wide question for you. What do you do after you set up a huge trophy of yourself in your front yard where you throw a massive party and you invite everybody, you know, to come check it out. Verse two, he said he then summoned the state traps. The prefects, the governors, the advisor, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrate and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image. He uh so the state traps the prefects, the governors, the advisor, the treasurers, the judges, the mist, all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up and they stood before it. So basically everybody that's anybody is coming to this thing, right? Verse four. Then the Herald loudly proclaimed nations and peoples of every language. This is what you are commanded to do. I know, I know I got the East coast mafia thing but just stick with me for just a second. As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the zit or the liar, the harp, the pipe and all other kinds of music. You must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up whose ever does not fall down and worship will be immediately thrown in the blazing furnace. Translation, we're gonna make you an offer. You can't refuse. You come over to my house. You don't pay homage to this beautiful breathtaking statue that I probably pay too much for you. Not only disrespect my family, but I'm gonna have to introduce you to my little friend. So picture this hundreds, maybe 1000 people gathered around this statue, the horns, the pipes, the recorders. If you're a parent of an elementary school are played and everyone drops to their knees. There's a thunder of rumbling knees hitting the dirt and it's causing a cloud of dust in the air and around the people. And as the music dies down and the dust settles, we see three young men standing around the mounds of bowing bodies. The king's astrologers first noticed these three men and they say, who's that? Did they already bow down and stand back up. One of them says to the other. Well, they are like younger than we are. So maybe, maybe they are like no, you know who that is? That's those Jewish boys. They're doing that on purpose. Where's the king? Where is the king? You see it's in light of these three men and their actions that we can ask ourselves, where's our identity? Because when we're looking at our own lives, the choices that we make ultimately shape our identity, don't they? And it's revealed in those choices, whether or not we stand against her, we bow down to our idols, right? Because if we're being truthful, we all have idols in our life, right? Which is anything that is more important than God. Anything that absorbs our heart and our imagination more than God. Because if not, I felt Lord. If I'm not standing up for you, what am I bowing down to? Right. And I have to be honest, when I was, when I was thinking about the sermon and who I bow down to the most, right? Who I serve the most, that's gotta be, it's got to be me. Right. Anybody else with me? How does this decision affect? Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's me. What about how it affects my family and my friends? Yeah. That's, that's a lot of me too. Finances, forget about it. Think about it. It's really hard to have any kind of relationship when it's all about you. Right. And here's what I want you to hear if you hear nothing else from this sermon. And this isn't just me saying this, this is Rick Warren. This is Francis Chan. This is the great theologian. Doctor Strange in the Marvel movie. The last one. You ready? It's not about you. Listen to me. It's not about you. Church. It's not about you. You want to test it? You ready? What are you thinking about right now? Not about that either. Right. Think about it. How free could you be in your relationships, your marriage when it's not about you? What about your job? Your, your school when it's not about you? Here's a good one, your gifts, your success. Not about you. Because at the end of the day, whatever idol you're worshiping is gonna let you down. But our God never will. Amen. Let these boys be the example in our lives to push our idols to the side and stand and serve him alone. But here's the cool thing right now, if you're feeling like your, your life is more bowing down to your idols than standing for our God. I'm here to tell you that there's a hinge, in fact, in everybody's life, right? That's a, that turning point in your life that you can change and bring you into the life that was intended for you. Believe that church, if not, I'm here to tell you, I'd like to take you on a journey. Actually, a parallel story real quick through the, through another story which I'm talking about is the story of Gideon, right? Which takes place a little bit earlier in the Old Testament. And you're like Gideon, Gideon, what is that? I know that Dave, what did Gideon do? Let me tell you Gideon, the guy that was called by God and he laid out the fleece. You remember that? He laid out a rug. So God came to him and said, Gideon, I have this plan for you and Gideon is like, that's so cool. But God, I need you to do something for me first. So guys like her, he said, if you make the fleece the rug, if you make that wet and everything else around it dry. Then I'm, I'm on board. So God does. He actually makes the fleece so wet that he, when he brings it out, it actually fills up a whole bowl. And then he says, you know, God don't be angry with me but can you just do it one more time just to be sure. He said, but this time we make the fleece dry and everything else went. So God does next, we see Gideon, he is the leader of an army. They're about to go into war with the Midianites. He has 22,000 soldiers at his will and he comes to God and he says, let's take this. And God says, no, too many men. I want you to get rid of some of your men come back. So he does, he comes back 10,000 men. He has this time and God's like, no, no, I'm thinking your number is 303 100 this is not Sparta. Ok? It's not, it's like, it's kind of like that story, but it's not. So the 300 he goes into battle against the Midianites and wins as the underdog. But here's the deal, the Midianites had 100 and 40,000 men against 300. See, those are the stories that we remember about Gideon. But here's what I want you to see is in these two verses before all the victories in his life. That's when we see the change in his identity judges 611 through 12, it says the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak in Oprah that belonged to Joash, the Abuzz where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, let me tell you who you are, the Lord is with you. Oh, mighty warrior. Can I point out a couple of things real quick? Because a lot of things, a lot of times we pass over certain parts of scripture and we don't even realize what we're reading. Are you ready? The angel of the Lord came and sat with Gideon under an oak tree, an angel of the Lord. Are you feeling this? In other words, this is an angel of the almighty God stepping out of the heavens injecting himself onto planet earth because God thought it was so important. This situation was, was so desperately in need of his presence that there was this one person, just one person that was significant enough that could change not only the trajectory of his life, but all those around him. I'm telling you, we should never take a verse like this for granted. God loves each of us so much and he's willing to keep coming back for us even when we don't deserve it. Amen. I really do believe that the reason you're either watching this online right now or you're here in the audience today is because God intended to meet you, right? Where you're at to show you that if you can shift your perspective of who you are, if he can make you start lining up your perspective and your behavior to match up with what he has called you to be. I tell you what it's gonna change everything. OK? Let me show you how we can find that change in our life. The second part of this verse, Gideon is thrushing wheat in a winepress. And you're like, why is that so weird? Check this out. The act of thrushing wheat is where you separate the grains from the chaff. And I know this because I did a lot of farming in Havasu. Actually, that's not true. I was actually on the beach. My dad knows, but I don't, I don't know this. So to do that, you have to actually beat on the wheat to release the grain right now. This is usually done at like a high point or like a mountain because then when you beat it, then the chaff actually flies away in the wind. But here we see Gideon in a wine press which isn't high in a mountain. It's actually a hole in the ground. He's hiding from the meteorites. And it actually says a couple of verses later that not only is he just scared out of his mind, but he's also considered one of the weakest of his entire family. But what does this verse say again? The Lord is with you? Oh Mighty warrior. What mighty warrior? Really? He's crouched down in a hole like hiding from his enemies. But here's the crazy part, isn't it wild how God finds us when we most need him? Doesn't it blow your mind to think that even when we dig our heels in and turn our backs on God, he never turns his back on us that we don't even know what we have. And the things that we can actually do until he opens our eyes and reveals our true identity. I mean, seriously isn't the best when you look back on your life and you're like God had his hands all over that. You know, John and I talk about that all the time. We like, you remember that one time you wanted to start a church and you remember the night before it rained, it didn't just rain, it dumped. So then all three of the major roads leading to the church were actually closed. But here's what we see as fingerprints because not only did it close the roads, but it closed the football fields. They're close to the baseball fields, close to the soccer fields. So then families had the opportunity to come and worship the ones you guide, right? Ok. That's what I want you to see. This warrior of God is in each of us, no matter if you're high on the mountain top or you're in a hole in the valley. It's who we are in Him that reveals these gifts and knowing, knowing, not only that he, he come down in the past, but he continues to come down for each one of us today because God is working in us and through us. And we can actually see the truth and love in our lives every day. Can you imagine if you just stepped into that role of who God wants you to be? Think about it, the changes that would bring to generations of your family into the world. If we really believe that it's not about you and all about him, imagine the kind of change that could take place. Think about it in your family, your kids and your grandkids and your great grandkids. Yeah. Let's get back to the book of Daniel. See what's going on with his friends. So the astrologers come running back to the king and they say, OK, OK. OK. OK. You remember when you said that if people didn't bow down to you when you played all those silly instruments? Well, out of all the people, three of the Jewish boys didn't do it. They don't serve you or the image of gold that you have set up. So they grab Shadrack Meshack and a Bendigo. Can you imagine that everybody's bowing down there? Like, come on. Come on. Oh, sorry. Keep bowing. No, no. Come on. Come on. And they bring him to the king. Now, the king is actually pretty calm at this point. He says, look, we had a lot of things going on this last week, right? We're putting up the statue, we got all this stuff, we had a lot of A V problems. So if there was like, you know, we had the mics were out of saying everything was, everything was bad. But in case you didn't hear it, let me tell you again, every time you hear the music, you must fall on your knees and worship the idol, I've set up. And if you don't, then we're gonna throw all three of you into the burning f the, the blazing furnace. That one. Mhm And this is the best line. I love this line. And the king says, if you don't, then what God will be able to rescue you from my hand. What God see, it's not about you. Verse 16, Shadrack Nak in a bego replied to him, King Nebuchadnezzar. We do not need to defend ourselves before you. In this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver you, deliver us from it and he will deliver us from your majesty's hand. But even if He does not, we want you to know your majesty that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold that you have set up at this point. The king loses his mind and orders the furnace to burn seven times hotter than it normally is. He gets his strongest soldiers to tie up the boys and throw them in the fire. Unfortunately, the, the flames and the fire was so hot and they did it in such a hurry that the soldiers actually throwing them in were burned up and died on the way in, in verse 24 says, then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers were there three men that were tied up and thrown into the fire and they replied, uh mm Yeah. Mm Yeah, certainly your Majesty. Yes. Verse 25 he said, look, I see four men walking around in the fire unbound and unharmed. And the fourth looks like a son of the gods. Ne Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shout at Shaak Mische in a Bendigo. Servants of the most high God come out, come here. So the boys came out of the fire and the say traps, the prefects, the governors and the royal advisors crowded around them and they saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies nor was a hair on their head, singed, their robes were not scorched and there was no smell of fire on them. But here's what I want you to see from this passage. Not only do we witness amazing faith in spite of potentially losing their lives, right? We also see they were bound and tied when they entered the fiery furnace but were unbound. It says, and walking around in the fire. Have you ever been in the middle of a storm in your life? And it feels like your hands are tied and there's nothing you can do. The story shows that there is freedom in your faith and knowing that maybe you can't get yourself out of this place, but he can, knowing that this identity in Christ is we carry isn't just something that we talk about. It's something that we actually live out because our God has already overcome everything that you're going through. It even declares in verse 17, he will deliver you through it, which leads me to my next point. Loneliness. It's one of those things that Satan puts in our head when we're down and tired, isn't it? When we think we're all alone in these situations, when all we want to do is curl up in a ball and lay in our beds and just be away from everyone and everything because nobody understands what I'm going through. Nobody understands the situation that I'm in. But here's the real secret. It's not about you and you're not alone. Christ is actually right there with you, right? Just like he was with Shadrack Meshack and a Bendigo. So when you're going through a tough time, just remember you're not alone. Christ is going through this with you. He's got you even at your worst moments. And finally, I want you to see this change in identity from this crisis we think we're in when we actually let Jesus into your life and let him start running things. Verse 28. Then Nebuchadnezzar said praise be to the God of Shadrack Meshack in a bego who has sent his angel and rescued his servants, they trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their, their own lives rather than serve or worship any God except for their own. Therefore, I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrack Meshack and Abe go be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble for no other God can serve this way. Did you hear the excerpts? No other God at the end of the day? It's not you. It's not me. It's not the idols we put on a pedestal. It's, it's not the fact that we can't get out of our own way when it comes to dealing with our earthly struggles. It's not about us. It is all about. However, the one that continuously comes down to where we're at, the one that has promised to guide us and deliver us from the fire and at the same time uses us to inspire and change the course of our life and all those around you, you see, it's your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. That does that. It's going from an identity crisis to your identity in Christ. See, that's when your sin can be nailed to that cross and you can be forgiven and freed from it all. Did you hear what I said? I said all of it. Even the stuff you're hiding, even the stuff that you think you can manage on your own. He died for that too. This God that became flesh and walked the earth with us, took our sin, our separation and death to our faith and he gave us unattainable grace, grace that we can never earn or even deserve. But he takes all of it, all of it just because we're his Children. Finally, if you have never accepted Christ into your life or you just figuring out right now that this life really isn't about you. I want you to just take a minute and think about what He's already done in your life where that needs to change for what you're doing for Him and not for you. So can we all just take a minute, a little reflection and prayer and kind of think about what we're supposed to be and then I'll wrap this up God. We want to get this. We wanna understand Lord, we wanna know what you're saying in these passages or do we want to know this life that you have given to us come to us? Lauren changes, open our eyes so we can see what you have for us, not what we want, lord, but the identity that we should have through you, but we are so blessed. We thank you for all that you've done for us. Then your subs new. Hey man.